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Defence Export Services Organisation

Mr. Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many jobs are provided by the Defence Exports Services Organisation; and at what cost to public funds. [36593]

Mr. Arbuthnot: During 1996-97, the Defence Export Services Organisation will employ 686 staff--including project staff whose costs do not come out of public funds--at an estimated cost to public funds of £12.784 million.

Mr. Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the cost to public funds of the Defence Exports Services Organisation in each year since 1991. [36596]

Mr. Arbuthnot: Final outturn figures for the Defence Export Services Organisation for 1991-92 to 1995-96 are as stated.

£ million

Year	Gross Exp	Receipts	Net DESO
1991-92	29.99	18.94	11.05
1992-93	31.87	19.98	11.89
1993-94	43.08	27.06	16.02
1994-95	50.26	39.32	10.94
1995-96	58.27	41.19	17.08

Sting Ray Torpedo

Mr. Sweeney: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the contract for the development of the life extended Sting Ray torpedo will be placed. [36866]

Mr. Arbuthnot: I am pleased to announce that we have today placed a contract worth some £109 million with GEC-Marconi underwater weapons division for the development of the life extended Sting Ray.

The Sting Ray lightweight anti-submarine torpedo has been in service with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force since 1983 and it is planned to extend its life by replacing expired components, and by so doing to improve its performance to maintain the weapon's effectiveness in the first two decades of the next century.

WALES

Menai Strait (Marine Nature Reserve)

Mr. Sweeney: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will designate the Menai strait as a marine nature reserve. [36998]

Mr. Hague: I published the requisite notice today. Representations should be made by 23 August. If, at the end of that time, there are no objections, the order designating the area as a marine nature reserve may be made with or without modifications.

Road Improvement Schemes

Mr. Sweeney: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what progress has been made in taking forward motorway and trunk road improvement schemes under the private finance initiative. [36997]

10 Jul 1996 : Column: 187

Mr. Gwilym Jones: I have decided that the A55 dualling from Llanfair PG to Holyhead--an important improvement to which my predecessors and I have consistently attached great priority--should be taken forward as a design, build, finance and operate scheme under the private finance initiative. Subject to the satisfactory completion of statutory procedures, I expect construction of the whole of the improvement across the island of Anglesey will commence in autumn 1998, and that the scheme will be completed some three years later at around the same time as would have been the case if the construction had been undertaken by means of conventional procurement.

Preparatory work is continuing on the A465 dualling between Abergavenny and Hirwaun, and the M4 relief road between Magor and Castleton, but it will be some time before decisions are required on the method of procurement. Nevertheless, it is my intention that these schemes should also be pursued as potential design, build, finance and operate contracts.

SCOTLAND

Veterinary Service (Orkney)

Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will take steps to ensure that a resident vet is available to serve the outer north islands of Orkney; and if he will make a statement. [35870]

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: Under the highlands and islands veterinary services scheme, veterinary services to the outer north islands of Orkney were provided for a considerable number of years by a resident vet who was a member of a large practice based in Kirkwall. The practice subsequently withdrew the resident vet for purely commercial reasons. The practice has not, however, withdrawn its service, operating now exclusively from Kirkwall. Following the revised arrangements for this scheme introduced recently, there is now a second practice, again operating from the mainland, which provides a veterinary service to these islands. My noble Friend's responsibility in operating this scheme is not to ensure the actual physical location of veterinary practitioners, only that adequate services are made available at reasonable cost to crofters and persons of like economic status in designated areas of Scotland. In the case of the outer north islands of Orkney, I am satisfied that such a service is readily available.

Cairngorms Funicular Railway

Mr. Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what research has been commissioned by (a) his office and (b) Highlands and Islands Enterprise to estimate the job retention and creation of the proposed Cairngorms funicular railway; and what alternative options for the upgrading of the skiing facilities have been evaluated. [35161]

Mr. Kynoch: No research into such matters has been commissioned by the Scottish Office. The research commissioned by Highlands and Islands Enterprise is an operational matter for that organisation and I have asked the chairman to write to the hon. Member.

10 Jul 1996 : Column: 188

Child Labour

Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the total number of children registered as working by each local authority in (a) the current year and (b) 1986. [36313]

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: This information is not collected centrally.

Expenditure and Revenue Report

Mr. Gallie: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has to update the Government expenditure and revenue in Scotland report, last published in October 1995; and if he will make a statement. [37121]

Mr. Michael Forsyth: It is intended that the Government expenditure and revenue in Scotland report should become an annual publication. The next edition, covering the period 1994-95, is scheduled to be published on 21 October 1996.

Haemophilia

Mr. Gallie: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what consideration has been given to the use of synthetic factor 8 for the treatment of haemophilia; and if he will make a statement. [37122]

Mr. Michael Forsyth: Synthetic, or recombinant, factor 8 is a new treatment considered appropriate for some patients with haemophilia. The treatment is an alternative to the plasma-derived factor 8 currently in use and supplied free of charge to the NHS by the Scottish national blood transfusion service. To assist with the costs involved in the acquisition of the new product, which is available only from commercial sources, I have agreed to make available funding of £1.1 million in the current year. Future arrangements will depend on the speed and extent of the transition from plasma-derived factor 8 to recombinant. This will be kept under review.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Industrial Injuries

Mr. Alan Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish the results of research undertaken by his Department into industrial injuries in respect of the income and resources of recent claimants. [35683]

Mr. Roger Evans: The results were published in December 1995 by Social and Community Planning Research, which was commissioned to carry out the research on behalf of the Department. A copy of the report, "Survey of Claimants of Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit", by Nigel Tremlett and David Dundon-Smith, is in the Library.

Family Credit

Mr. Alan Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his estimate of the cost of disregarding family credit in the calculation of (a) housing benefit and (b) council tax benefit in the next financial year. [35682]

10 Jul 1996 : Column: 189

Mr. Roger Evans: The estimates are £230 million and £75 million respectively.

Notes:
1. Based on data from the 1991-92-93 Family Expenditure Surveys, uprated to 1996-97 benefit and price levels.
2. Figures are rounded to the nearest £5 million.

Taxi Fares

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much his Department spent in meeting the costs of taxi cab fares in the 1995-96 financial year. [36010]

Mr. Burt: The information is not available.

TRANSPORT

M25 (Widening)

Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how many months the widening scheme for the M25 between junctions 6 and 8 is behind schedule; [35585]

(2) how much of the additional costs incurred on the delay in the M25 widening construction project between junctions 6 and 8 will be borne by (a) the contractors and (b) the Government; [35584]

(3) what additional costs construction delays have added to the cost of the M25 widening scheme between junctions 6 and 8; [35583]

(4) what is the current estimated total cost of the M25 widening scheme between junctions 6 and 8; [35582]

(5) what are the reasons for the delay in completing the widening scheme for the M25 between junctions 6 and 8; [35581]

(6) over what period 24-hour working has been in operation on the M25 road widening scheme between junctions 6 and 8; [35532]

(7) what reviews his Department has carried out of the Highways Agency's management of the M25 widening scheme between junctions 6 and 8; [35531]

(8) what is the current projected date for completion of the M25 road widening project between junctions 6 and 8; [35530]

(9) what inadequacies in the project specification have been discovered in the M25 widening project between junctions 6 and 8 subsequent to the commencement of work; [35529]

(10) what date his Department was first informed that the completion of the M25 widening project between junctions 6 and 8 might be delayed. [35528]

Mr. Watts: I have asked the chief executive of the Highways Agency to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Lawrie Haynes to Mr. Andrew Mackinlay, dated 9 July 1996:

As you know, I have been asked by the Minister for Railways and Roads to reply to your Parliamentary Questions about the M25 between junctions 6-8.

10 Jul 1996 : Column: 190

The improvements between junctions 6 and 8 are under construction and I am afraid that these roadworks are taking much longer to complete than we originally estimated. We are very conscious of the stresses caused by delays to traffic and clearly we regret any delays to our schemes. But the possibility of delay is always present when carrying out complicated major civil engineering works.
The section is one of the busiest of the M25 and includes the major M25/M23 interchange at junction 7. To cope with the volume of traffic it carries, it needed to be widened from three lanes each way to four lanes. It is one of the oldest sections of the M25, having been in use for some 20 years. Major maintenance was due and, to minimise overall traffic disruption, we decided to do it at the same time as the widening. This included renewing the worn-out existing road surface, upgrading bridges and installing lighting.
Work started in March 1994 and it gradually became clearer during Summer 1994 that the implementation of the project would be delayed.
We discovered that the original 'capping layer', which is the lowest layer of the road construction lying about one metre deep, had deteriorated to the extent that it was too weak to support the new upper layers of the reconstructed carriageway pavement. Although some allowance was made in the Contract for replacement of deteriorated capping material, the scale of what we found was far in excess of what was foreseen. The Contractor can only replace this capping layer in a piecemeal way to fit in with traffic phasings.
The other major problem we had to contend with was unexpected premature development of ruts in the wheel tracks on the new road surfacing material. The material used, hot rolled asphalt, has been developed over many years, and used throughout the country. The reasons for the problems in this case are unclear. We suspect the cause to be an exceptional combination of site specific factors, which include the high number of lorries that use this section of the M25, the temporary traffic management arrangements which concentrated the lorries into one lane and the exceptional heat of last summer, which could have affected the newly laid asphalt materials. As a precaution to reduce the risk of future rutting, we have instructed the Contractor to adopt an enhanced asphalt specification but the rutted areas of new surfacing have to be replaced.
Our best estimate of the likely completion date for this project is December this year, but as with any major construction scheme, this date is subject to many variables such as the weather or other unforeseen problems.
The Highways Agency was established in 1994 as an executive agency of the Department of Transport, and is responsible for managing a safe, efficient and environmentally acceptable trunk road system throughout England, on behalf of the Secretary of State. We work closely with our parent Department, the Department of Transport, but the Highways Agency is responsible for operational matters.
Under the Contract, the Contractor is responsible for the size of his workforce, the amount of plant used and the hours worked. At present, the Contractor works 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday and 7.00 am to 6.00 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Also, when changes to traffic management arrangements are required, they are often made on Saturday and Sunday nights. On weekdays nights the level of activity is less than during the day. This pattern is likely to continue until Autumn.
The principal reasons for the delays in completing the widening and refurbishment of this project are the problems caused by having to replace the capping layer and the premature formation of ruts in the resurfaced carriageways as described earlier.
The original tender price for the project was £46 million. The contract, which follows a standard form used in the Civil Engineering industry, contains clauses enabling the contractor to be paid for extra work and related delays. Negotiations on the amount of these extra payments are likely to continue for some while.
The Highways Agency will fund the replacement of both the deteriorated capping layer materials and the rutted asphalt surfacing. It will also fund extra costs arising from adopting the enhanced

10 Jul 1996 : Column: 191

asphalt specification. This is because neither of these problems have been found to be the fault of the Contractor. The amount of the additional costs has not yet been evaluated.
The original contract period for this project was 15 months, from March 1994 when work commenced, until June 1995. This 15 month period did not take into account the major difficulties which were discovered during construction and was set in an attempt to minimise the time taken on the project. The major problems we have encountered have regrettably delayed the works and the latest estimated completion date is December 1996, subject as I have already explained, to the many variables that can affect construction progress.
I visited this site in early July and can assure you that I remain fully aware of the adverse effects the prolongation of the works is having on the travelling public. I apologise for the inconvenience caused but we are continuing to press for the earliest possible finish. I have every confidence that once the scheme is completed, drivers will find the widened carriageways, the improved signing and new street lighting will provide much better driving conditions.
Your office has asked about the proposed scheme to widen the M25 east of the J6-8 project. The current position is that proposals to widen this stretch of M25 went to Public Exhibition in June 1994. Following the November 1995 review of the Roads Programme, this scheme has now been placed in the new longer term category. Widening is still expected to be necessary in the future but does not need to be undertaken yet. As a result, all preparation work has ceased.

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