Central government departments and their arm’s length bodies (ALBs) have just over a month to apply for an exemption from the requirement to go zero emission by 2027.

Reporting organisations wishing to apply for an exemption from the government fleet commitment must do so by 31 May 2025

In 2021, the UK government confirmed that its light duty fleet will go zero-emission by 2027 – three years earlier than previously planned – as part of the Transport Decarbonisation Plan.

This was followed in August 2024 by new guidance outlining the scope, reporting and exemption of the government fleet commitment.

The DfT has now confirmed that reporting organisations wishing to apply for an exemption must do so by 31 May 2025 and should use the application form on the GOV.UK landing page for guidance. Organisations will be notified of the result of their application by the end of July 2025.

The target of 100% of the central government car and van fleet denotes vehicles that are in scope of the commitment, are not exempt and have not been given an additional exemption.

The government fleet commitment applies to all central government departments and their arm’s length bodies (ALBs) as identified in Cabinet Office guidance on the classification of public bodies and classed as ‘reporting organisations’.

Devolved administrations, local authorities, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories are not within scope of the commitment.

All cars and vans owned and leased by a reporting organisation are in the scope of the government fleet commitment unless otherwise specified. This also includes car club vehicles.

The guidance published by the Department for Transport last year sets out which vehicles are exempt and where additional exemptions will be considered, for example where meeting the commitment would pose a security risk.

Organisations seeking an additional exemption will need to include either evidence of the likely security risk that could result from meeting the commitment, or evidence that shows current ZEV options do not meet necessary safety requirements, or evidence that shows current ZEV options are not technically viable for the vehicle’s intended use case

The reporting organisation should provide evidence to demonstrate it has explored all available options to meet the commitment before seeking an exemption. This evidence should show that no safe, technically viable ZEV alternatives were available when the application was submitted.

Full details of the government fleet commitment scope, reporting, exemptions and applications are online here.