Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, spent more than £19,000 in three months for the use of his official secure car, it was disclosed last night.

The details were published by Sir Gus, head of the Home Civil Service, as he announced that 250 of Whitehall’s most senior officials would follow suit and publish their business expenses in the coming months.

In a letter to the chairman of a Commons committee, Sir Gus said an itemised breakdown would be published quarterly of travel, hotel and other expenses, including hospitality, claimed and received by senior officials of director general grade and above.

“In order to demonstrate my commitment to this publication I have decided to publish details of my expenses today. It will of course be updated at the end of the month to reflect any additional spend,” Sir Gus wrote.

The bill of £19,408.86 for his car is the largest item in Sir Gus’s expenses, which cover the months from April to June. A Cabinet Office spokesman claimed the high amount was because a secure car was needed with a “vetted” driver. The vehicle is from the Government’s car pool and would be provided automatically for the use by the Cabinet Secretary.

Other items claimed include £733.20 in travel, accommodation and meals for attending events in Edinburgh, Plymouth, Oxford and at the National School of Government at Sunningdale, Berkshire. He also claimed £130.50 for newspapers.

The details, published on the Cabinet Office website, show that Sir Gus charged £276 in rail fares, £68.20 in air fares and £106.80 for accommodation and meals, for attending the meeting of the Cabinet in Edinburgh in April.

He claimed £229 for the rail fare to Plymouth to attend the launch of a Civil Service South West initiative in May and £24 for taking the train to attend the annual meeting of Nuffield College, Oxford, in June.

There were also train fares of £10.60 and £18.60 for two visits he made to the annual meeting of the top 200 civil servants in Sunningdale in April and May.

Sir Gus updated his declaration of hospitality he received, including breakfast with the communications agency Gardant, lunches with consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, ITV, and the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, and the CBI annual dinner.

Meanwhile a series of reforms to the system for MPs’ expenses were put forward by Tony Wright, chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee.

In evidence to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which is considering new rules for the way MPs claim expenses, Mr Wright said there should be an end to a second home allowance and to mortgage interest repayments. He suggests this should be replaced by rent paid on a single-bedroom flat.

He also proposed new employment rules to prevent MPs employing family members without a proper appointments process and ending the £10,000 communications allowance, which MPs can claim for publicising their work to constituents.

“The new requirement on transparency will clean up the system at a stroke but we still need to have an expenses system that can stand up to public scrutiny,” said Mr Wright. “This means a much less generous system than we have now, especially in relation to property and an end to the concept of a second home.”

His evidence coincided with warnings that plans for the independent regulation of MPs’ expenses claims could be incompatible with human rights law.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) cast the proposals in doubt as laws to bring them into force were being sped through the House of Commons. It said that the new regulatory system outlined in the Bill would not comply with the right to a fair hearing.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “We have considered the human rights implications of the Bill and believe it is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.”

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