CHANCELLOR Gordon Brown has extended the ministerial right to a chauffeur-driven car - a tax perk understood to be worth more than £5,000 - to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The perk was introduced in 1996, allowing a chauffeur for the prime minister, leader of the opposition, the opposition chief whip, the speaker, all cabinet ministers and ministers who were assigned drivers, exempting them from benefit-in-kind tax.

Brown has extended the perk to ministers in the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly, plus a small number of senior posts in each of these bodies. His decision increases the number benefiting from this perk from 100 to 150.