The Cabinet Office paid CI$250,000 last year to the drivers of the three vehicles that carry the Premier, the Deputy Premier and other officials, more than double the 2021 figure, and says working out what each car costs to run would unreasonably divert its resources.

Figures the office supplied to The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) on 18 September put the fleet's running costs at CI$1,006,000 from 2020 to 2025. Drivers account for CI$925,000 of that, or 92%; fuel, at CI$41,000, for 4%; and maintenance, cleaning and licensing for the remaining CI$41,000. The totals exclude insurance, and the office has not provided any costs for individual vehicles. It supplied them three weeks after saying that the per-vehicle running costs, fuel costs and odometer readings requested under the Freedom of Information Act would "unreasonably divert its resources", and that it intended to refuse those parts of the request unless its scope was narrowed.

Three ministries have since answered the same request for the cars assigned to their own ministers, down to fuel, tyres and cleaning. The Ministries of Planning, Health and Education, each of which holds one Chevrolet Tahoe for its Minister, answered between 19 and 28 September. Their records also show that all three vehicles were fitted with emergency lights, and two with sirens, between January and June this year.

What was asked, and who has answered

TCJ sent the request by email on 17 August to the government's central FOI mailbox for distribution to all information managers; gov.ky lists more than 90 public authorities with one. Authorities recorded receiving it between 18 and 21 August, and their deadlines run from those dates. Its 14 parts cover each year from 2020: which vehicles are assigned to which offices, what they cost to buy and run (parts 4 to 6 cover operating costs, fuel and odometer readings), the policy on use, allowances paid in lieu, disposals, and which vehicles carry protocol lights. It does not seek drivers' personal information or security-sensitive details of officials' movements.

By 5 October, 13 authorities had replied. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development said on 21 August that it had paid no vehicle allowance to any official and "therefore does not hold the records you are seeking". The Ministry of Financial Services and Commerce said on 26 August that it had no records, adding that since May 2025 "the transport of our Minister, who is also the Premier, in such vehicles is provided by the Protocol Office." Five authorities, including Parliament, extended their deadlines by a further 30 days. Four supplied records for one vehicle each, and the Ministry of Education and Training answered for the vehicle transferred to it from Tourism. The Cabinet Office has addressed three of the 14 parts. None has provided the running cost of the vehicle assigned to the Premier, André Ebanks MP. The Premier's office referred TCJ to the Cabinet Office.

The protocol fleet

The Cabinet Office's email of 28 August describes a three-vehicle fleet: one "exclusively assigned to the Premier"; a second generally used to transport Deputy Premier Gary Rutty MP and "occasionally used to transport other officials"; and a third used for local elected officials and visiting dignitaries "but not used exclusively for this purpose".

The email addresses parts 4 to 6 only. To comply, it said, the office would need to produce multiple reports from its financial management system and trace every payment to its invoice, reviewing "hundreds of invoices and supporting records", including 79 monthly fuel usage reports held by the Department of Vehicle and Equipment Services (DVES); diverting its finance team "may also materially impact the timeliness of payments to our suppliers." It invoked section 9(c) of the Act, under which a public authority "is not required to comply with a request where … compliance with the request would unreasonably divert its resources".

Under regulation 10(2) of the Freedom of Information (General) Regulations (2021 Revision), such a notice "automatically suspends the thirty-day period" until the applicant agrees to narrow the request. TCJ has not agreed a narrower scope, and the period remains suspended. Purchase prices and procurement records fall within the eleven parts of the request the email does not address. Regulation 10(3) requires an information manager claiming unreasonable diversion to weigh "the work time involved in fully processing the request"; the email contains no estimate of staff hours. The office of Ombudsman Sharon Roulstone, which hears appeals under the Act, told TCJ on 8 September that there is no fixed number of hours above which a request becomes an unreasonable diversion; the authority must show that compliance is beyond its resources and explain why.

What the Cabinet Office then produced

Asked by TCJ on 4 September whether the office knows what the fleet costs to run, the Department of Communications' head of communications and public relations, Alethia Lambert, replied on 9 September: "Yes, and the Protocol Office's fleet costs are published in aggregate in the Portfolio's annual financial statements." The office's 2024 audited statements contain no line for vehicle running costs, and on 14 September TCJ asked where the costs appear.

The office's written response of 18 September said the statements report fleet running costs within supplies and consumables, with "no separate line for the protocol fleet specifically", and that the two statements "are not in conflict": the FOI request sought "itemised, transaction-level records" for each vehicle, which "requires a resource-intensive review of underlying source documents", while fleet totals are figures "the Cabinet Office can draw directly from its records without that exercise". It supplied those totals, "drawn from audited records" and rounded to the nearest thousand: CI$61,000 in 2020, CI$134,000 in 2021, CI$143,000 in 2022, CI$185,000 in 2023, CI$225,000 in 2024 and CI$258,000 in 2025. Payments to drivers rose from CI$58,000 in 2020, a year of pandemic restrictions, and CI$123,000 in 2021 to CI$250,000 in 2025. The response does not say how many drivers the fleet has or whether the number of vehicles changed, and did not say whether, or when, the office will answer parts 4 to 6. The three lines for 2025 add up to CI$259,000 against the stated total of CI$258,000; every other year sums to its total.

Three ministries costed one car each

The Ministry of Health, Environment and Sustainability granted full access on 28 September. Its Minister's vehicle is a 2023 Chevrolet Tahoe RST with a 5,300cc engine, bought outright in August 2023 for CI$59,900 through what the ministry describes as "Competitive Procurement through the Department of Vehicle and Equipment Services" and placed in service on 15 September 2023, "For Official Use by the Minister". Running costs were CI$140 in 2023, CI$418 in 2024, CI$5,166 in 2025 and CI$10,937 from January to August 2026, of which fuel was CI$3,633 last year and CI$3,435 so far this year. The Minister is Katherine Ebanks-Wilks MP.

The Ministry of Planning, Lands, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure granted partial access on 19 September, withholding names and signatures under section 23(1) of the Act, and said its search for records of allowances and of the authority for protocol lights "continues at this time". It owns one Chevrolet Tahoe assigned to its Minister, Jay Ebanks MP. The released purchase request, dated 16 August 2022, states that "Minister Jay Ebanks has requested the purchase of a vehicle for use during official Ministerial Business", that ministers "routinely need access to suitable transportation" for meetings and site tours, and that the budget was CI$70,000. It names a "Chevrolet Tahoe (as an example)" with a V8 engine. DVES obtained two quotations within three days: Vampt Motors offered a 2023 Ford Expedition Limited at CI$57,500 duty free on 18 August 2022, and Advance Automotive a 2023 Tahoe RST at CI$57,400 "with Duty Waiver" on 19 August. A bill of sale from Advance Automotive dated 19 August 2022 records the sale to DVES of a black 2023 Chevrolet Tahoe RST with a 5.3-litre V8 for CI$57,400, half payable with the purchase order and half on delivery; the dealer's quotation gave arrival as December 2022 or January 2023, and the first fuel drawn for the vehicle at the government fuelling facility was on 13 January 2023, at an odometer reading of 11. A DVES work-order summary lists 14 jobs from August 2023 to August 2026 totalling CI$11,215.98. The fuel usage report released with the response covers January 2023 to August 2026 and totals CI$4,416.93 for 1,029.7 imperial gallons: CI$471.28 across six fill-ups between January and May 2023, nothing between 30 May 2023 and 18 November 2025, CI$355 in the last six weeks of 2025, and CI$3,590.65 across 56 fill-ups from January to August 2026. The odometer reading at the final fill-up, on 28 August 2026, was 61,208.

The Ministry of Education and Training granted access on 28 September to one vehicle "for the Minister": the 2023 Tahoe RST that the Ministry of Tourism and Trade Development told TCJ on 15 September it had bought for CI$59,900 in July 2023 and transferred at a carrying value on its asset register of CI$36,938.33. Education says the transfer took effect on 1 June 2025. It reported fuel of CI$2,179.36 from June to December 2025 and CI$2,624.67 from January to August 2026, cleaning of CI$232.10 and CI$586.82 over the same periods, and said servicing, repairs and tyres are "covered by DVES". It gave odometer readings of 12,708 in June 2025 and 20,568 in January 2026. The Minister is Rolston Anglin MP, who is also Minister for Finance and Economic Development; the Finance ministry told TCJ on 21 August that it "has not owned, purchased or leased a car for the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to use". Tourism had said it "did not incur any fuel or maintenance expenses for the vehicle while it was under the Ministry" and did not say who did.

The Portfolio of Legal Affairs, which holds the Attorney General's vehicle, answered on 8 September, withholding the make and model on security grounds and releasing running costs of CI$9,960.96 from 2020 to part of 2026, of which fuel was CI$6,662.52.

Lights and sirens

Part 10 of the request asked for details of any vehicle assigned to an elected official that carries blue, amber or other flashing lights, including the date fitted, the cost, and the legal or administrative authority under which their use was approved.

Education said its Minister's Tahoe was fitted with "blue and red emergency lights" in March 2026 at a cost of CI$8,480.42. It left the questions on legal authority and on who authorised the installation blank and, for policy, said "refer to CIG policy". Planning's work-order summary records "Install emergency lights & siren & Tint" on its Minister's Tahoe in January 2026 at CI$1,445.15, and a "Dash Cam / Rear Stroebe Bar" job in March 2026 at CI$969.45; the ministry said its search for other records on the lights continues. Health's fixed-asset register lists a "Covert emergency responder kit interior light bar, perimeter light & siren system" at CI$3,929, placed in service on 30 June 2026, which accounts for the "accessories and modifications" line in its 2026 costs.

Blue lights on ministers' cars have been lawful in principle since 2012. The Traffic Regulations made that year, in force from 20 September 2012 and now consolidated as the Traffic Regulations (2026 Revision), provide at regulation 13(6)(g) that the official vehicle used by the Premier or Deputy Premier, judges, magistrates, the Speaker, visiting dignitaries, "Members of Cabinet" and the Hazard Management Department "shall be equipped with such lights as the Director may authorise and in addition may carry a blue or amber rotating, flashing or pulsating light". The provision has not been amended since. The Director is the Director of Vehicle and Drivers' Licensing, and for any other vehicle regulation 13(1)(a) requires the Director's written approval, after consultation with the Commissioner of Police, before it may carry an external light of any colour other than white, red or amber. The FOI request asked for the legal or administrative authority under which each light was approved; none of the three responses identifies it, and Planning said its search for those records continues. What is new, on the records released, is the timing: the three vehicles were bought in 2022 and 2023 and the lights were fitted between January and June this year.

Both Planning and Education pointed TCJ to the Cayman Islands Government Vehicle Standardization, Procurement and Use Policy, adopted in 2015 and updated in October 2024, as the rules governing their vehicles. The policy is written for the government fleet as a whole and does not mention elected officials or protocol lights. It says private use of government vehicles is prohibited unless a head of department approves it "in exceptional circumstances", that non-government employees may not drive one without the Deputy Governor's written permission, and sets out the forms and approvals required before a department buys a vehicle; Planning's released purchase request is on the DVES form the policy prescribes.

Five extensions

Section 7(4) of the Act lets an authority "for good cause" extend the 30 days once, by up to 30 more, and section 7(5) says the response "shall state the reasons therefor". The Ministry of Social Development and Innovation extended on 7 September to 18 October without stating a reason. The Ministry of Caymanian Employment and Immigration (9 September, to 17 October), Parliament (16 September, to 18 October), the Ministry of District Administration and Home Affairs (17 September, to 17 October) and the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage (22 September, to 17 October) each cited the volume of records. None of the five said whether it holds vehicles assigned to elected officials.

The fuel records

The 79 fuel reports the Cabinet Office referred to are held by DVES, whose official told TCJ by telephone on 4 September that fuel statements are produced per licence number and could be released under FOI; TCJ is not naming the official, who answered a departmental line. Health and Planning each released such a report for their Minister's vehicle. TCJ filed a request to DVES by email on 12 September for the three protocol vehicles' fuel records. On 17 September DVES replied that it had "confirmed with Cabinet Office who is already handling a request that includes this information" and "will not respond separately". Section 8 of the Act requires an authority to transfer an application more closely connected with another authority's functions within ten calendar days and to inform the applicant; by 5 October DVES had not told TCJ whether it had done so.

Requests for comment

On 14 September TCJ emailed the Cabinet Office's Department of Communications with six questions for the Cabinet Office and the Deputy Governor's Office, including whether a section 9(c) notice should state the work time involved. The Cabinet Office's response of 18 September is reported above; the Deputy Governor's Office did not reply to the two questions put to it. Asked the same day whether the Premier considers the running cost of his vehicle to be information that should be disclosed on request, the Office of the Premier replied on 16 September that the enquiry "relates to an ongoing Freedom of Information request to which the Cabinet Office, as the holder of the relevant records, is responding". The Office of the Leader of the Opposition, emailed on 2 September, had not replied by 5 October.

The figures and records attributed above to the Ministries of Planning, Health and Education are taken from their own written responses to the FOI request and the documents released with them.