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Public Transport (Rural Areas)
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what plans he has to encourage people in rural areas to use public transport; [110776]
- (2) what plans he has to improve access to bus services in rural areas. [110777]
Mr. Hill: The Government are committed to improving bus services in rural areas. The 1998 Budget provided an additional £50 million a year for three years for rural public transport in the UK as a whole. This was increased by £10 million a year for 1999-2000 and 2000-01 in the 1999 Budget.
In England, the majority of this funding, £32.5 million per year, is being allocated to local authorities through the Rural Bus Subsidy Grant. Over 1,800 new and enhanced bus services were supported in the first year. We have also given support to 104 innovative rural transport schemes, totalling some £28 million, from the Rural Bus Challenge competitions. There will be at least one further Challenge competition.
Rural areas also receive assistance for public transport, including modes others than bus, through two schemes administered by the Countryside Agency. The Rural Transport Partnership scheme provides support for partnerships between the public, private and voluntary sectors to develop and implement transport strategies for rural areas. The Rural Transport Development Fund encourages the provision of innovative solutions to local transport needs in rural areas, meeting the start-up costs of new services and providing revenue support to services in danger of being lost.
The Transport Bill now before Parliament contains a range of measures to ensure that public transport plays its full part in an integrated transport policy, in town and country alike.
Mr. Cox:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many senior civil servants from an ethnic minority background are employed in his Department; and how many of them are (a) men and (b) women. [110687]
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Ms Beverley Hughes:
Information on ethnic origin in the Civil Service is collected on the basis of self-declaration and on the understanding that it will be treated on a confidential basis. To protect the privacy of individual members of staff we do not disclose data relating to fewer than five people.
My Department has fewer than five people in the senior civil service who have declared themselves to be of ethnic minority background.
Mr. Hilary Benn:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if his Department collects information by postcode on the location of road accidents involving pedestrians. [111065]
Mr. Hill:
The locations of injury accidents involving pedestrians are recorded by Ordnance Survey grid reference and are not analysed nationally by postcode.
Mr. Cohen:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Mr. Brake) of 21 December 1999, Official Report, column 523W, on London Underground, if he will list the principal causes of the failures of rolling stock, indicating the number of failures in each category. [111593]
Mr. Hill:
This is an operational matter for London Underground. To provide the principal causes of the failures of rolling stock, indicating the number of failures in each category would incur disproportionate cost.
Mr. Cohen:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the steps taken by Thames Water to prevent leaks, with particular reference to the timescale for changing all lead pipes in street areas (a) in Leyton and Wanstead and (b) elsewhere in London, including those from mains to house stop-cocks; if he will indicate for each London constituency the amount of such piping which is deemed to need changing; how much Thames Water (i) has spent on this in each of the last five years and (ii) it is committed to spend in the next five years; and if he will break down (i) and (ii) by (1) Leyton and Wanstead and (2) other London constituencies; what incentives Thames Water provides to home owners to change old pipes; and if he will make a statement. [111273]
Mr. Mullin:
The new Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) tightens the standard for lead in drinking water from its current 50g/l to 25g/l by 25 December 2003 and to 10g/l by 25 December 2013. Where action is necessary to meet these standards, water companies will first treat water to reduce its ability to dissolve lead from pipes, or will optimise that treatment where it is already in place. Replacement of company lead pipes will be needed where water treatment fails to achieve the standards--mainly in soft-water areas. This will become fully apparent only after optimised treatment has been in place for some months. Water companies have no
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responsibilities for the pipework within the property boundary, which will remain the responsibility of property owners.
Thames Water has met targets for leakage reduction for 1997-98 and 1998-99, reducing leakage over that period by 29 per cent. Under targets set by the Director General of Water Services, this should be reduced by a further 24 per cent. by March 2001.
Information about spending on leakage and lead pipe replacement is not publicly available, and would need to be requested from Thames Water. However, in Ofwat's publication, "1998-1999 Financial Performance and Expenditure of the water companies in England and Wales", Table 26 states that a total of 86,850 communication pipes were replaced by Thames between 1990-91 and 1998-99.
Mr. Crausby:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what percentage of documentation used by his Department is (a) made from recycled paper and (b) collected for recycling. [111598]
Ms Beverley Hughes:
About 99 per cent. of all printing procured through my Department's Print Procurement Unit is on recycled paper, containing at least 75 per cent. post consumer waste. Use of recycled paper by staff generally reached 50 per cent. in 1998-99. Recycling schemes now cover 80 per cent. of staff. Further action is planned to increase the use of recycled paper and to promote improvements in recycling paper and other items.
Dr. Marek:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what assessment he has made of the (a) advantages and (b) disadvantages of electrifying the North Wales mainline; [111429]
Mr. Hill:
The possibility of electrifying the North Wales line was investigated as part of the plans for the West Coast Main Line upgrade and it was considered that the expense of doing so could not be justified by the current or potential rail traffic over this line. Railtrack are committed to work which will increase the line speed considerably and some of this work has already been carried out. Both First North Western and Virgin Trains, who are the main operators over this route, are in the process of introducing new rolling stock, with tilting technology in the case of the Virgin Trains, and this will enable the line speed to be raised to between 90 and 100 mph over many sections.
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Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is the minimum permitted altitude of aircraft approaching Heathrow from the west (a) 5, (b) 10, (c) 15 and (d) 20 miles from Heathrow. [111260]
Mr. Mullin:
The requirements for aircraft approaching Heathrow Airport to land are specified in the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP).
Aircraft approaching Heathrow to land from the west are individually directed by air traffic controllers at West Drayton, and for noise mitigation purposes may not descend below an altitude of 2,500 feet before being established on the Instrument Landing System (ILS) localiser, which corresponds to the extended runway centreline. The ILS also includes a radio signal describing a 3o final approach descent gradient (or glidepath) along the extended runway centreline. The ILS glidepath reaches an altitude of 2,500 feet at approximately 7½ nautical miles (nm) from touchdown. At night (between 2300-0700 local time) aircraft are required to intercept the extended runway centreline no closer than 10 nm from touchdown (approximately 3,000 feet). In general, the altitude of an aircraft on final approach to Heathrow would be ca. 6,000 feet at 20 nm out, ca. 4,500 feet at 15 nm out, and ca. 1,500 feet at 5 nm out.
Dr. Stoate:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his policy on the application of the precautionary principle included in Article 174 of the EC treaty and principle 15 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on the environment and development. [111426]
Ms Beverley Hughes:
The Government's policy on application of the precautionary principle is based on the Rio Declaration, and is set out in Chapter 4 of the Strategy for Sustainable Development for the UK, "A better quality of life" (page 23), a copy of which can be found in the Library of the House.
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A better quality of life specifies the precautionary principle as one of the 10 guiding principles and approaches that the Government will take account of in policy development. Based on the Rio Declaration definition, the Government's definition makes it clear that precautionary action requires assessment of the costs and benefits of action, and transparency in decision making. It also sees precaution as being relevant beyond environmental damage, to include affects on animal and human health.
Dr. Stoate:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to empower local authorities to have recourse to the precautionary principle in Article 174 of the EC treaty when assessing planning applications from telecommunications companies to erect mobile phone masts within highly populated areas. [111425]
Ms Beverley Hughes:
Article 174 of the EC treaty applies only in respect of policy-making at the EU level, and not to policy-making by individual member states.
(2) what assessment he has made of the (a) advantages and (b) disadvantages of completely electrifying the main rail connection between London and Dublin via Holyhead. [111430]
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