through the graduated vehicle excise duty regime. In Budget 2007 we announced reduced rates for low-carbon band B cars and increased rates for the most polluting (band G) cars 2. The Government will provide new funding of an initial 20m to support a new programme aimed at accelerating the market penetration of lower carbon vehicles and reducing the barriers faced by companies in moving from prototype demonstrations of lower carbon technologies to full commercialisation. This programme will provide financial support for public procurement of fleet scale demonstrations of lower carbon vehicles (and where appropriate supporting infrastructure). The programme will seek to build on the model of contractual forward commitments in which commitments to purchase vehicles are linked to the achievement of pre-determined cost and performance criteria. The Government will consult on the detailed operation of this new programme later in 2007 - with a view to supporting the first fleet procurements/demonstrations in 2008/9.  To ensure that Government leads by example we have set a fleet average car procurement target of 130g/km CO by 2010/11 for new cars purchased by Government and used for administrative operations. We will keep the target under