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Capital Receipts (Lancashire)

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list for each local authority in Lancashire the capital receipts held resulting from the sale of land, property and other assets. [697]

Mr. Raynsford: The amounts of accumulated and unspent usable capital receipts at 31 March 1996 for each local authority in Lancashire are listed below:

	£000
Lancashire CC	154
Blackburn	0
Blackpool	4,916
Burnley	1,154
Chorley	500
Fylde	353
Hyndburn	0
Lancaster	0
Pendle	302
Preston	1,966
Ribble Valley	261
Rossendale	186
South Ribble	4,540
West Lancashire	1,276
Wyre	3.810

Source:

1995-96 capital outturn returns.

22 May 1997 : Column: 156

Comparable figures for the amounts of set-aside capital receipts held by local authorities are not available. Individual authorities may not have retained all their set-aside receipts in the form of cash and investments, but instead used the cash to repay debt or in lieu of further borrowing.

We will be consulting the Local Government Association and local authorities on the Government's Capital Receipts initiative. No decision about the basis on which resources are to be distributed to individual authorities will be made until that consultation process is complete.

TRANSPORT

Road Safety

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions which road has the highest number of accidents; and if he will publish a league table of those roads in the UK with the highest number of road accidents. [2]

Ms Glenda Jackson: I attach information on injury accidents and consequent casualties in 1995 for specified motorways in Great Britain. Unfortunately, the specific information requested is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

22 May 1997 : Column: 155

Accidents and casualties by severity: vehicles involved by vehicle type: road length: all by selected individual motorways(5): 1995Number

	Accidents			Casualties			Vehicles involved
	Fatal	Serious	All severities	Fatal	Serious	All severities	Two-wheel motor vehicles	Cars and LGV	HGV	All vehicles(6)	Kilometres open at December 1995(5)
England
M1/M10	20	144	980	23	194	1,658	43	1,965	334	2,372	319
M45	0	1	3	0	1	7	1	2	1	4	13
M2	0	12	59	0	12	87	5	94	19	120	43
M3	1	37	229	1	43	353	23	410	32	468	90
M4	11	73	603	23	110	936	46	1,086	108	1,269	187
M5	11	56	373	11	78	591	17	701	107	133	262
M6	24	129	940	26	191	1,659	31	1,681	395	2,150	383
M11	3	18	143	3	23	209	11	225	38	278	85
M11	2	7	50	3	10	85	2	84	19	108	46
M20	4	23	98	4	34	156	1	154	30	185	86
M23	1	11	85	1	14	146	6	161	12	182	27
M25	16	109	1,028	17	139	1,623	52	2,036	302	2,420	185
M26	0	4	12	0	4	24	1	17	3	21	16
M27/M271/M275	6	27	206	6	38	299	17	443	25	490	60
M40	6	45	273	7	60	454	9	487	64	566	147
M42	1	27	112	1	34	174	5	203	28	239	72
M50	0	4	11	0	4	14	0	9	7	16	35
M53	0	8	76	0	8	120	2	137	8	149	33
M54	2	2	29	2	2	39	2	47	10	61	36
M55	0	4	19	0	7	40	0	29	5	34	19
M56	1	12	108	1	12	171	2	182	31	220	58
M57	2	1	26	2	2	50	0	50	2	52	17
M58	0	1	24	0	1	30	2	32	6	40	19
M61	2	11	72	2	17	116	3	128	19	151	40
M62	11	48	483	15	61	753	19	870	186	1,081	174
M63	1	7	132	1	8	192	1	259	30	294	26
M65	0	7	30	0	8	45	0	55	4	61	22
M66	0	7	39	0	7	53	2	84	5	93	19
M69	0	4	27	0	5	36	2	37	5	44	28
M180/M181	1	4	19	1	4	20	0	16	9	26	45
Other motorways	3	6	112	3	6	148	10	201	14	228	36
Motorways	129	849	6,401	153	1,137	10,318	315	11,885	1,858	14,255	2,625
A(M) roads	12	51	450	13	63	673	29	821	78	937	201
Total (including A(M) roads)	141	900	6,851	166	1,200	10,991	344	12,706	1,936	15,192	2,826
Wales
Motorways	4	24	209	4	34	323	6	404	57	475	--
A(M) roads	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	--
Total (including A(M) roads)	4	24	209	4	34	323	6	404	57	475	126
Scotland
Motorways	9	75	330	10	99	535	12	554	73	648	--
A(M) roads	0	0	2	0	0	2	0	2	0	3	--
Total (including A(M) roads)	9	75	332	10	99	537	12	556	73	651	316
Great Britain
Motorways	142	948	6,940	167	1,270	11,176	333	12,843	1,988	15,378	--
A(M) roads	12	51	452	13	63	675	29	823	78	940	--
Total (including A(M) roads)	154	999	7,392	180	1,333	11,851	362	13,666	2,066	16,318	3,268

(5) Casualty and accident data by road class are not available for Northern Ireland.

(6) Includes pedal cycles, buses and coaches and other vehicles.

(7) Excluding slip roads. Data for England from 1994 onwards supplied by DOT Statistics Directorate. Data for Wales from Welsh Office and Scotland from Scottish Office.

22 May 1997 : Column: 157

22 May 1997 : Column: 157

BAA

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he next intends to meet the chairman of BAA. [815]

Ms Glenda Jackson: The Deputy Prime Minister had a constructive discussion with Sir John Egan, the Chief Executive of BAA plc, at a meeting on Wednesday 21 May.

Heathrow

Mr. Streeter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to use EU regulations to ring-fence Heathrow slots for flights from Plymouth and the south west. [978]

Ms Glenda Jackson: The Government has no powers to ring-fence slots for services which are no longer operating.

Road Maintenance

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimate he has made of the cost to the Highways Agency of preventing deterioration of the trunk road network. [4]

Ms Glenda Jackson: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions will be discussing appropriate levels of the future

22 May 1997 : Column: 158

expenditure on the trunk road and motorway network with the Chief Executive of the Highways Agency over the next few months.

Railtrack

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what action he proposes to take to ensure that Railtrack fulfils its contractual obligations to maintain (a) the infrastructure and (b) track and signalling. [64]

Ms Glenda Jackson: Under its contracts with train operators Railtrack is penalised for delays to services caused by faults in the infrastructure and signalling and thereby encouraged to invest in necessary maintenance. This is one of the areas we are considering as part of our review of regulation of the rail industry.

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) if he will list the amount which Railtrack is contractually obliged to spend on track and signalling upkeep and maintenance; [66]

(2) what powers he has to force Railtrack to commit funds towards maintenance and upkeep of track and signalling if it falls below the contractual obligations set by the regulator. [67]

22 May 1997 : Column: 159

Ms Jackson: The Secretary of State has no powers to force Railtrack to commit funds. The Rail Regulator, in setting the level of charges payable by train operators, has assumed that Railtrack will spend £3.5 billion at 1995/96 prices on network renewal in the six years to 2001. Railtrack does not have a contractual obligation to spend this amount on maintenance but a failure to spend at the levels assumed by the Regulator would be taken into account when he reviews access charges in 2001.

The Rail Regulator has today called for greater public accountability from Railtrack and announced that he will be seeking agreement to an amendment to Railtrack's licence to ensure delivery of its investment plans. This exposes the weakness in the present system. We will be conducting a thorough review of rail regulation.

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