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Road Schemes
20. Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions by what criteria he determines which major road schemes are visited by Ministers. [82800]
Dr. Reid: Ministers decide whether to visit a major road scheme on a case by case basis, depending on their diary commitments. They make a judgment on whether seeing the site of a scheme for themselves would be sufficiently useful to make the visit worthwhile.
Railway Bridges
23. Mr. Sutcliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what action he has taken to improve the condition of railway bridges. [82803]
Dr. Reid: All bridges carrying trunk roads over railways are fit to carry 40 tonne lorries. DETR is continuing to liaise with Railtrack and local authorities to ensure that any necessary strengthening work on bridges carrying local authority roads is completed with a minimum of disruption to road users.
Rural Transport
25. Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what representations he has received from people in rural areas regarding the Government's policies on transport. [82805]
Dr. Reid: We have received representations on our policies on transport from a range of individuals living in rural areas, as well as from representative organisations. Ministers have met representative organisations to discuss their concerns and ideas on the provision of transport in rural areas.
Landfill Sites
27. Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimate he has made of the number of new landfill sites for organic and household waste that will be needed in the next five years. [82807]
Mr. Meale: Arrangements for the provision of individual sites are for Waste Planning Authorities and the private sector.
Road Network
29. Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what action his Department is taking to improve the condition of the road network. [82809]
Dr. Reid: The Government have made maintenance of trunk roads a top priority and are also committed to restore the cuts in local road maintenance funding. New techniques are being introduced to minimise the need for maintenance and reduce the impact of maintenance works on the motorist.
Bus Companies
30. Dr. Whitehead:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans
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he has to introduce a requirement that bus companies publish their performance against targets for service reliability and punctuality. [82810]
Dr. Reid:
I have announced my intention to discuss with the bus industry the establishment of targets for service quality, against which operators would publish information.
31. Jackie Ballard:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what steps he is taking to safeguard the provision of rural train services. [82811]
Dr. Reid:
The minimum level of service an operator must plan to provide is set out in the Passenger Service Requirement (PSR), which forms a key part of the contract. PSRs for rural services in general were set to reflect closely the level of services being operated by British Rail at the time of franchising. The Franchising Director has powers to enforce compliance with the PSR.
32. Mr. Clapham:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what representations he has received about levels of awareness of latex allergy among health care workers. [82812]
Mr. Meale:
I have received no direct representations on levels of awareness of latex allergy among health care workers.
However, I am aware that the Health and Safety Executive has received a number of direct inquires about latex allergy. These have included requests for information, complaints and some reports of latex allergy across the health care sector.
33. Mr. Mackinlay:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what time scale he is working to for implementation of the decisions made at the rail summit. [82813]
Dr. Reid:
The rail industry has committed to year-on-year improvements: this means that within two to three years the railway's performance will be significantly better. Within 10 years, we aim to have one of the best railways in the world.
34. Mr. Gardiner:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his assessment of the safety of ships registered in Belize. [82814]
Dr. Reid:
The safety record of the Belize register is unsatisfactory. During 1995-97, 139 Belize vessels were inspected by Port State Control authorities within the Paris Memorandum of Understanding area which covers Europe, Russia and Canada. Of these, 84 were detained for faults to be remedied before vessels could safely put to sea. That is a detention percentage of 60.43 per cent. as against an average for all flags of 16.42 per cent.
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35. Mr. Chaytor:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his proposals to reduce road traffic levels. [82815]
Dr. Reid:
We are making good progress in implementing the package of measures set out in our Integrated Transport White Paper which is needed to reduce traffic growth, and to reduce absolute levels of traffic in those places where its environmental damage is greatest.
37. Mr. Sayeed:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what progress he has made in the implementation of his integrated transport policy. [82817]
Dr. Reid:
We are making good progress in delivering integrated transport. We are investing an extra £1.8 billion in local and integrated transport; the shadow SRA is already driving forward changes on the railways, and Local Authorities are working up strategic local transport plans covering all their transport needs.
38. Mr. Chope:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the time scale for public inquiries into local plans. [82818]
Mr. Raynsford:
The time taken for each local plan inquiry will depend on the number of objections made to a plan and the number of objectors who appear in person at the inquiry rather than submitting written representations. Our proposals for improving the arrangements for the preparation and adoption of local plans (set out in the draft revise of PPG12 published on 17 February) should reduce the number of objections which need to be considered, and hence the length of inquiries.
Dr. Lynne Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on progress with the New Deal for Communities. [82802]
Ms Armstrong:
Under our New Deal for Communities, community based partnerships in 17 of the most deprived neighbourhoods have now taken responsibility for tackling deep-rooted problems of social exclusion and multiple deprivation. Across Government, we will continue to work with those partnerships as they develop plans to deliver lasting change.
Mr. Stinchcombe:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what independent evaluation there has been of the selection procedure for membership of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment; [76223]
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Mr. Meacher:
The selection procedure for membership of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) is carried out in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments Unit's "Guide on Public Appointments Procedure". This document is publicly available and a copy is in the Library.
In selecting applicants, our aim is to produce a committee with a range of scientific and technical expertise that will equip ACRE to deal effectively with its wider remit and the regulatory challenges ahead. In particular we are looking for expertise in the fields of genetics, molecular biology, microbiology, plant breeding, entomology, farmland ecology, wildlife/ biodiversity, agronomy and farming practice. Candidates needed to be acknowledged experts in their fields and be able to contribute effectively at ACRE meetings.
(2) if he will make a statement on the selection procedure for membership of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, with particular reference to (a) the criteria for selecting applicants, (b) the procedure by which individuals are invited to reply, (c) which Government Departments are involved and (d) the extent of public information available about the procedure. [76251]
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