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Construction Standards
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to review the buildmark and related construction standards. [75505]
Mr. Raynsford: Buildmark is a housing warranty scheme run by the NHBC, but I keep closely in touch with the steps being taken by them aimed at reducing the incidence of defects in new housing and at improving the procedures for resolving problems when they arise. My Department is represented on the NHBC Committee which keeps under review the technical standards drawn up in support of the Buildmark scheme. My Department also maintains contact with the other main providers of housing warranties.
Development Projects
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many new housing developments have been based on public design competitions in the last five years; and if he will make a statement on the role of urban design guidance in promoting such developments. [75506]
Mr. Raynsford:
No data are collected by the Government on design competitions. A number of such competitions--approximately 20-25 per year, 4 or 5 of which involve new housing developments--are run by the Royal Institute of British Architects for a variety of public and private clients. The guidance used to conduct many of these competitions is issued by my Department together with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, entitled "Architectural Competitions: A Handbook for Promoters" (1996). A copy of this publication is in the Library.
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Forthcoming good practice guidance on design in the planning system will promote design competitions as a useful mechanism for achieving better quality housing development.
Mr. Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will remove the absolute requirement for roundabouts to be lit where they are situated in sensitive rural locations. [75101]
Ms Glenda Jackson
[holding answer 8 March 1999]: There is no absolute requirement to light roundabouts. It is for the highway authority to decide whether to light, based on their assessment of the benefits to be gained and the potential adverse environmental impact.
Good design, installation and maintenance practices can do much to reduce the adverse environmental impacts of street lighting. My Department has issued advice on this subject in "Road Lighting and the Environment" and, with the Countryside Commission, has published a guide "Lighting in the Countryside: Towards Good Practice". The Highways Agency's Design Manual for Roads and Bridges contains advice on lighting rural roundabouts, which is to be supplemented following research.
Ms Kelly:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what proportion of local authority properties are void in (i) Bolton, (ii) the North West and (iii) England. [75636]
Mr. Raynsford:
The proportion of local authority dwellings which were reported as void on 1 April 1998 was 1.8 per cent. in Bolton, 3.7 per cent., in the North West region and 2.5 per cent. in England.
Mr. Burns:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the numbers of void social housing properties by housing authority in England and Wales. [75540]
Mr. Raynsford
[holding answer 9 March 1999]: I have placed the information requested in the form of a table in the Library. The table presents the latest information on the number of vacant dwellings owned by each local housing authority in England, as reported by them at 1 April 1998, and gives equivalent estimates for stock owned by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in those districts at 31 March 1998. The latter are based on information supplied by RSLs to the Housing Corporation.
Corresponding information for Welsh housing authorities is the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Mr. Martlew:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment of the future role of Carlisle airport he plans to include in his proposed statement on UK airport policy; and if he will make a statement. [75532]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
As foreshadowed in a "New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone" (Cm3950), DETR has recently commission, in conjunction with the Government
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Offices for the North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber, a Regional Air Services Study for the North of England. This will include an assessment of the future role of Carlisle airport within the UK's airport system, its potential for meeting the demand for air services in Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders and the economic, environmental and social costs and benefits of doing so.
Ms Perham:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what procedures are in place to investigate near-miss air incidents. [75706]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
Under Article 106 of the Air Navigation (No. 2) Order 1995, controllers and pilots report airproxes (near miss) in which they were involved to the UK Airprox Board (UKAB), an independent organisation funded by the Civil Aviation Authority and the MOD.
Incidents involving commercial air transport, or which occur in controlled airspace, are passed to the CAA's Safety Regulation Group (SRG) for investigation. Where military aircraft are also involved, a separate investigation into the military aspects is conducted by the MOD. Once completed, the MOD's investigation report is sent to the SRG to be amalgamated with their own report of the incident.
Incidents which only involve military aircraft are referred to the MOD for investigation. The UKAB themselves conduct investigations of incidents involving general aviation in uncontrolled airspace.
SRG and the MOD forward their completed airprox incident reports to the UKAB which then independently assesses the degree of collision risk; and makes any necessary safety recommendations. The results are published.
In addition, the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents, who reports directly to the Secretary of State, has the right on any occasion to institute an investigation by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). The AAIB reports are published in due course.
Ms Perham:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if his Department will be conducting a full investigation into the near-miss incident involving a Boeing 737 and a Gulfstream Jet over Chigwell on 26 February. [75705]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
DETR's Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has begun an investigation of this incident and the results will be published in due course.
In addition to the AAIB investigation, the Civil Aviation Authority's Safety Regulation Group (SRG) is carrying out its own investigation. Once completed, the SRG report is passed to the independent UK Airprox Board (UKAB) for its review and assessment of the incident.
The UKAB will also publish its findings. These will include an assessment of the degree of collision risk and any appropriate safety recommendations.
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Mr. Woolas:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the weather station sites and the respective local authorities in England which are used in the calculation of snow days for the purposes of the standard spending assessment. [75518]
Ms Armstrong:
Information about the weather stations used in the calculation of the number of snow-lying days for the purpose of standard spending assessments has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Hoyle:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what initiatives his Department is taking to provide assistance to the British haulage industry. [75759]
Ms Glenda Jackson
[holding answer 9 March 1999]: The Government want a road haulage industry that is safe, competitive, efficient and sustainable. On 2 March we published Sustainable Distribution: A Strategy, which sets out our approach and the range of initiatives which we will be taking forward to assist the haulage industry to meet these aims. The initiatives include integration of the sustainable transport of goods with our planning and roads policies; improvements in safety and enforcement which will benefit the law-abiding majority of the industry; and the promotion of best practice.
Mr. Jim Cunningham:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the average times taken for planning applications to be processed by each planning authority in the last year for which figures are available. [75302]
Mr. Raynsford
[holding answer 10 March 1999]: The information needed to determine the average time for planning applications to be processed is collected centrally only for a small number of mainly minerals and waste development applications (known as 'county matters'). These represent less than 1 per cent. of all applications and include some large, complex and contentious applications which tend to raise difficult planning issues that take some time to resolve. Information on the average time taken to determine this category of applications for the year ending September 1998 is shown in the table.
The speed at which decisions are made for the vast majority of applications, i.e. all except 'county matters', is measured in terms of the proportion of decisions determined within 8 weeks and 13 weeks. In the year ending September 1998, 62 per cent. of these applications in England were determined within 8 weeks and 83 per cent. within 13 weeks.
The Department is currently considering whether average time taken to determine applications should be included in the suite of Best Value performance indicators on which the Department will be consulting later this year.
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(9) Excludes Unitary Authorities created on 1 April 1998.
(10) Following local government reorganisation on 1 April 1998, Hereford and Worcester county was split into Herefordshire Unity Authority and Worcestershire. Figures are provided from this date onwards.
(11) Authorities comprise parts of wound up Urban Development Corporations from 1 April 1998.
(12) Unitary Authorities created on 1 April 1998.
(13) Authorities include areas within a National Park but figures are for outside the park area only.
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