Harriett Baldwin has today written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling to ask him to raise the rate at which charities can reimburse their volunteer drivers.

Currently, HMRC allows charities to reimburse volunteer drivers for their fuel at a maximum rate of 40p per mile. With petrol and diesel prices so high, this rate no longer is adequate to cover the volunteers' fuel costs. Charities cannot reimburse volunteers in any other way without creating taxable income. Therefore the threshold should rise to 50p per mile.

Harriett Baldwin said, "I wrote to Alistair Darling because I have heard that volunteer drivers in Worcestershire are becoming reluctant to drive the elderly to hospital or for shopping visits, because the high cost of fuel means that 40p per mile reimbursement is not sufficient to cover their costs. Raising the reimbursement threshold will not actually cost the Treasury anything, but will show that the government is listening to the cost pressures that are affecting all of us."