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Regional Chambers

Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list, by political party, the number of councillors who are members of each regional chamber. [96010]

Ms Armstrong: The current breakdown, by political party, of the councillors who are members of the regional chambers is as follows:

	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat	Other
East	11	10	5	1
East Midlands	17	37	6	8
North East	2	34	4	2
North West	15	38	10	7
South East	33	15	20	5
South West	23	19	30	8
West Midlands	7	27	6	2
Yorkshire and Humber	4	13	2	3

Oxford Traffic

Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the Oxford Transport Strategy's impact on traffic congestion in the city. [96597]

Mr. Hill: The Oxford Transport Strategy has been implemented as a rolling programme since its adoption in 1993, supported by a specific central Government funding from 1994-95 onwards. Oxfordshire County Council has established a programme of continuous monitoring to assess the impact of the Oxford Transport Strategy. They estimate that car flows into the central area of Oxford have decreased by about 4.5 per cent. from 1991 to 1998. The Government will continue to assess the results of this monitoring as part of the Local Transport Plan funding regime.

Council Tax

Ms Kelly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the operation of the council tax benefit subsidy limitation scheme for 2000-01. [96951]

Ms Armstrong: The guideline for the 2000/01 scheme will be the same as last year: a 4.5 per cent. increase in council tax or such higher increase as is necessary to give the council an increase in its budget requirement equal to its full cash SSA increase. As indicated last year, the scheme will operate cumulatively. For each authority, we will use its previous year's council tax at guideline as the starting point.

All other aspects of the scheme will operate on the same basis as last year.

Revenue Support Grant

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what arrangements he intends to make for the distribution of revenue support grant to local authorities in England. [96952]

29 Oct 1999 : Column: 1003

Ms Armstrong: I expect to be able to announce to the House full details of the proposed Revenue Support Grant distribution in late November. However it would be helpful both to hon. Members and local authorities to announce now what I am minded to do in terms of grant distribution, phasing in or changes, and consultation.

This year, I propose to set considerable store by stability in the grant system, to help councils plan ahead. In our July 1998 White Paper, "Modern Local Government--In Touch With The People", we said that we would not expect to make fresh changes to the method of calculation of Standard Spending Assessments (SSAs,) except, for example, where there are changes in the functions of councils, or the financing of particular services. We said that the SSAs of individual councils would change to reflect changes in demand for their services as reflected in the data used to calculate the SSAs.

The totals of SSAs will change this year to reflect the increased funding announced last July in the Comprehensive Spending Review. There will be changes to reflect new functions or financing arrangements. The £150 million from the Service Development Fund which we had put in the Education SSA total to help meet the costs of implementing the pay reforms proposed in the Teachers' Green Paper will now be paid as part of a special Grant for that purpose.

Our present intention is that, subject to consultation, and approval by the House, we shall not make any changes to the method of grant distribution generally. We shall need to make some limited adjustments to SSAs to accommodate the establishment of the Greater London Authority (GLA) and related changes, most notably those arising from the alterations to the boundary of the Metropolitan Police area and the Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey police areas.

We intend to adopt similar rules for Central Support Protection Grant and the SSA Reduction Grant as for this year. This would mean that no authority would receive less central support in 2000-01 than in 1999-2000, and every education authority would receive at least a 1.5 per cent. increase in central support. In both cases, the comparisons must make allowance for the changes connected with the creation of the GLA. The SSA Reduction Grant would operate in the same way as in 1999-2000 but with comparisons moved on a year as necessary.

I am sure that this early indication of our intentions will be welcomed by most authorities for the extra certainty which it gives them in the early stages of their budget decisions for next year.

Given the degree of stability that we propose this year, I do not intend to invite local authorities to hold meetings with Ministers during consultation on the settlement. I expect authorities to put any points in writing; they will all be considered before I finalise my proposals. I shall meet the local authority associations so that they can put any points directly to me. Individual local authorities of course can channel their comments through the associations.

29 Oct 1999 : Column: 1004

Rail Vehicle Accessibility

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if there is an exemption order for the fleet of new trains to be introduced into service by Serco Metrolink in respect of any of the provisions of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998; if he will list all exemption orders from the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 since 27 July; and if he will make a statement. [96954]

Mr. Hill: As my predecessor explained in her answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty) on 9 March 1999, Official Report, column 167, we are expecting to receive a number of exemption applications from train and tram operating companies whose designs for new rail vehicles were well advanced prior to the 1998 Regulations comming into force.

We have received an application from Serco Metrolink relating to the new trams they wish to introduce on the Manchester Metrolink extension to Eccles via Salford Quays. The exemptions, which are of a very minor nature, have been discussed with our statutory advisers the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee. An exemption Order relating to the exemption of these trams has been laid in Parliament today. Copies are available from the Library.

Applications for exemption from certain aspects of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 1998 have also been received from both South West Trains Ltd. for their Class 458 rail vehicles and ScotRail Railways Ltd. for their Class 170/4 rail vehicles. The exemptions sought were also discussed with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee. Exemption Orders relating to the South West Trains vehicles and the ScotRail vehicles were laid before Parliament on 3 September and 13 September respectively. Copies are also available from the Library.

The exemptions will not prevent disabled people from using the new trams or trains. Indeed, we believe that their introduction will make a significant contribution to improving mobility opportunities for disabled people.

DEFENCE

Queen Victoria School

Mr. Russell Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what are the key targets for 1999-2000 for the Chief Executive of Queen Victoria School, Dunblane. [96908]

Mr. Kilfoyle: The Chief Executive of Queen Victoria School has been set the following Key Targets for 1999-2000:

Achieve a staying on rate at School for S4 to S5 of at least 70 per cent. based on a three year trend.

Exceed by 2 per cent. the average percentage pass rate for all Scottish presentations obtaining five or more Credit awards at Standard Grade based on a three year trend.

Achieve a percentage of the presentation at Higher Grade achieving A to C grade greater than or equal to the Scottish average based on a three year trend.

To achieve a pupil per capital cost of no more than £17,415 (at 1998-99 prices) by March 2000.

To generate income to the School of at least £240,000.

29 Oct 1999 : Column: 1005

Gulf War Syndrome

Mr. Welsh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many referrals to the Gulf Veterans' Medical Assessment Programme there have been; and what research into Gulf War syndrome the programme sponsors. [96063]

Mr. Spellar: At 27 October 1999 there had been 3,128 referrals to the Gulf Veterans' Medical Assessment Programme (GVMAP). The GVMAP does not sponsor research into Gulf veterans' illnesses. Its two main purposes are:

to investigate patients' medical complaints, make a diagnosis as far as is possible, and recommend appropriate management, or provide reassurance if no illness is found;

to collate statistical information in an anonymised form as a resource for researchers.

As part of this second role, a paper on the clinical findings from the first 1,000 patients seen by the GVMAP was published in the British Medical Journal on 30 January 1999. This was the first time that the results of clinical examinations of a large number of UK Gulf veterans had been published. A paper on the clinical findings from the second 1,000 patients is in preparation and will be submitted for publication later this year.

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