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FPSO (Fires)

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what contingency plans he has for responses to major fire on board any of the FPSO in severe weather conditions in the oil fields west of Shetland; and if he will make a statement. [94528]

Mr. Meacher: Arrangements are in place; the response to a major fire would be dealt with by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) in co-operation with operators of offshore installations and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). In line with Lord Donaldson's report on command and control at sea, DTI would co-ordinate in the event of an incident involving a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) installation at anchor, where there is risk of or actual damage to the environment.

Under health and safety law, operators must assess major accident hazards, including fires, and take appropriate measures to deal with them. The Health and Safety Executive enforces these requirements, and inspects the installations to ensure measures are in place.

School Bus Transport

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what action he is taking to improve the safety of school bus transport. [94723]

Mr. Hill: The use of buses is already considered the safest way to transport children to and from schools. With the introduction of seat belts on forward facing seats in coaches and minibuses carrying groups of children on organised trips we have already implemented measures that improve the safety of these vehicles.

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A new School Travel Advisory Group has been set up to advise local authorities, school governors and teachers etc. on the best practices for operating school travel. It includes safety as part of its remit.

Rent Service

Mr. Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what progress has been made with the establishment of the Rent Service as a Next Steps executive agency. [94817]

Mr. Mullin: The Rent Service was established as a Next Steps Executive Agency on 1 October 1999. Copies of the Agency's Framework Document have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

The aim of the Agency is to provide for rental valuations which are impartial and fair to tenants, landlords and taxpayers.

I have set the following targets for the Agency for the remainder of 1999-2000:

1. Achieve targets for service delivery set out in table below.

2. Manage the Service within financial allocation.

3. Implement new and streamlined management structure by end November 1999, including appointment of Area Managers, posts in the Quality Inspectorate and regional redetermination teams.

4. Develop and implement effective Agency systems for finance, personnel, training and development, internal and external communication, and the quality control of valuation by 31 March 2000.

5. Put in place by the end of October 1999 a detailed plan for the implementation of the new IT system and abide by that plan.

6. Produce detailed action plan for phased rationalisation of the office structure in London by 31 October 1999 and implement first phase by 31 March 2000. Produce detailed action plan for reorganisation of the office structure outside London by 31 December 1999.

7. Negotiate and conclude 1999 pay settlement for rent officers. Develop plan to negotiate harmonised terms and conditions for Agency staff by 31 March 2000.

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Targets for service delivery for 1 October 1999 to 31 March 2000

	Current performance	Target
Housing benefit determinations (without an inspection). Statutory requirement--5 working days.	60% within 4 working days 71% within 5 working days	65% within 4 working days 80% within 5 working days
Housing benefit pre-tenancy determinations. Statutory requirement-- 5 working days.	65% within 3 working days 95% within 5 working days	70% within 3 working days 99% within 5 working days
Housing benefit redeterminations. Statutory requirement-- 20 working days.	30% within 20 working days	50% within 20 working days
Housing renovations grants determinations. Statutory requirement-- 45 days.	98% within 45 working days	88% within 45 working days

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London Transport

Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many of the Government's performance targets for (a) London

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Underground and (b) London Buses have been met in the last two years. [91528]

Mr. Hill [pursuant to the reply, 27 July 1999, c. 358-59]: The following table shows the performance and targets of both London Underground and London Buses.

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	Performance				Targets
	1998-99	1997-98	1996-97	1995-96	1998-99	1997-98	1996-97	1995-96
London Underground
Train Service regularity (%)(8)	94.3	95.4	93.5	95.6	n/a	95.9	95.7	95.7
Percentage of schedule operated	93.6	95.5	94.5	96.2	96.9	96.9	96.5	n/r
Ticket purchase--queueing less than 3 mins (%)(8)	93.9	94.8	96.0	97.2	n/a	98.0	98.0	98.0
Escalator availability (%)	92.7	93.3	92.8	92.7	91.4	93.0	92.0	92.0
Lift availability (%)	94.8	95.8	96.8	95.5	93.8	96.0	96.0	95.0
Excess journey time (mins)	6.46	--	--	--	6.25	--	--	--
	Customer satisfaction measures
Train service (%)	75	75	76	76	77	77	76	76
Information on stations and trains (%)	77	74	74	68, 73	75	75	73	66, 76
Customer safety and security (%)	81	81	83	83	83	83	83	84
Station staff helpfulness and availability (%)	68	67	69	64	70	70	69	65
Train and station cleanliness (%)	67	66	68	63, 68	69	69	69	66, 70
	London Transport Buses
Kilometres operated	98.5	98.7	99.1	99.2	99.0	99.0	99.0	99.0
Low frequency routes departing on time	69.0	70.0	70.3	71.4	77.0	74.0	74.0	70.0
Low frequency routes--departing early	5.0	5.0	4.8	4.7	3.4	4.0	4.0	4.0
Night bus services--departing on time	71.0	66.2	61.3	61.4	70.0	65.0	65.0	65.0
Excess waiting time on high frequency routes (min)	2.0	1.8	1.8	1.7	1.4	1.5	1.5	1.5
	Customer satisfaction measures
Bus stations--overall quality of environment	73	68	69	67	76	71	71	71
Bus stations--overall quality of information	63	63	65	66	68	68	68	67
Condition of bus stops and shelters	78	57	55	53	76	57	54	54
Internal cleanliness of buses	75	67	59	58	83	70	63	63
External cleanliness of buses	76	66	54	54	78	69	54	54
Staff helpfulness	82	60	63	64	87	66	66	66

(8) This measure was replaced in 1998-99 with a measure of excess journey time

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CABINET OFFICE

Millennium Compliance

Mr. David Atkinson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make a statement of progress on the millennium readiness of her Department's computer systems, and those for which it is responsible in the provision of public services; if contingency plans are in place; and what slippage has occurred since the July quarterly report to the House. [93566]

Marjorie Mowlam: Details of the Cabinet Office, its Agencies and associated public bodies--for which I am responsible--progress in tackling the bug are set out in our quarterly monitoring returns. These show that work on all business critical systems, embedded chips and telecommunications systems is now complete. The results of the October monthly review of progress of Departments and agencies in tackling the bug are due to be announced shortly by the President of the Council.

There has been a slight slippage in ensuring the compliance of a few non-business critical applications and embedded systems. This work had been scheduled for

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completion by the end of September. Some of this has now been completed and contingency arrangements have been invoked to ensure compliance of all systems by the end of October.

In line with CCTA guidance, all areas including No. 10 will have Business Continuity Plans and Millennium Operating Regimes in place and tested by the end of October.

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