THE Government has defended its commitment to the environment after all but one of its fleets failed to sign up to its ground-breaking Motorvate scheme. Only the Department of Social Security, which runs a fleet of 80 liquefied petroleum gas vehicles, was among the six fleets which signed up for the launch.

The absence of support within the Government's own ranks came as the final report of the Cleaner Vehicles Task Force, entitled 'The Way Forward', called for local and national authorities to set the example to the fleet industry.

It warned: 'If Government does not lead by example, many of the messages that it is trying to get across will be lost or ignored. Local and national government fleets therefore need to be seen to be leading the way in green fleet management.'

The report also said: 'All companies with fleets should sign up to Motorvate. The Task Force believes the scheme can make a substantial difference to the way fleets are managed and make an important contribution for reducing CO2 emissions.

'Government, in partnership with major leasing providers, should use Motorvate to raise corporate awareness of the opportunities for financial and environmental gains from more efficient fleet management.'

A spokeswoman for Motorvate admitted that it was unlikely every Government fleet would sign up, as some were only made up of a few vehicles, but insisted there was widespread interest in the scheme.

She said: 'I would hope to see a very substantial sign-up among Government departments in future. We wanted to get a wide variety of fleets on the scheme for its launch. It may have put off companies if they only saw Government fleets represented.'

Speaking at the launch, Patricia Hewitt, minister for small business and e-commerce promised to push for Government fleets to join the scheme.

She said: 'I would expect any Government fleet to do everything it can to push down the cost of running its fleet and help the environment.'