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Devon County Council

Sir Peter Emery: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what response he

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has made to the request from Devon county council for dispensation to pay for its redundancy and restructuring costs over a period of years. [118503]

Ms Armstrong: Devon county council asked to be allowed to treat these revenue costs as capital expenditure. Such applications are granted only when we conclude, in accordance with published criteria, that the costs could not be met out of available revenue resources. My officials have notified the council that, on the basis of the figures provided in January, the criteria are not satisfied and that consent will not be given.

Housing (Hampshire)

Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to the oral statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Ms Hughes), of 21 March 2000, Official Report, column 181WH, what his assessment is of the potential for Hampshire county council to (a) reconsider the designation of land in its current plan and (b) increase further the provision for housing on previously used land. [118549]

Ms Beverley Hughes: I have not made any such assessment.

Hampshire county council together with the unitary authorities will, in the light of advice in Planning Policy Guidance Note PPG3 and the emerging Regional Planning Guidance for the South East (RPG), need to review their structure plan and bring forward alterations they consider necessary.

Meanwhile, the district and unitary authorities are required to consider PPG3 and the emerging RPG in preparing their local plans in conformity with the newly- adopted structure plan. The structure plan only distributes housing to district level, and apart from the four Major Development Areas, is not prescriptive. The districts, therefore, need to consider how to meet their requirements taking account of the advice in PPG3 on such matters as maximising use of land, avoiding inefficient development, encouraging higher densities and a wider variety of dwellings, thus reducing land take. In bringing forward their local plan proposals they should also take account of our advice to recycle existing buildings and to review all non-housing allocations including industrial and commercial allocations.

Speed Limits (HGVs)

Mr. Alasdair Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what powers he has to alter the speed limit for heavy goods vehicles on single carriage-way trunk roads. [118327]

Mr. Hill: Vehicle speed limits are set out in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and may be varied by regulation under the provision of section 86 of that Act. There are no plans to amend the maximum speed limits applicable to heavy goods vehicles on single carriageway roads. These are 50 mph for goods vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight and 40 mph for those exceeding 7.5 tonnes.

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Merchant Navy

Mr. Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many British ratings were employed in the UK Merchant Fleet in each of the last five years. [118355]

Mr. Hill: The Maritime and Coastguard Agency obtains data on UK seafarers from the Chamber of Shipping. The latest data available for UK ratings employed (by companies who are members of the Chamber) show that the figure is 11,340 as at May 1999.

A ratings task force, chaired by the Chamber of Shipping, has been set up and job opportunities for ratings will be considered.

Mr. Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many Merchant Navy officer cadets began training in the UK in each of the last five years. [118354]

Mr. Hill: The numbers of merchant navy officer cadets who began training in the UK in each of the last five years are as follows:

Year	Number
1995-96	398
1996-97	460
1997-98	465
1998-99	494
1999-2000	480

These figures relate only to cadets supported under the Government funded training schemes Government Assistance for Training (GAFT) prior to 1997-98 and Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) since then.

Shipping

Mr. Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many new vessels were delivered to UK private-sector shipowners in each of the last five years; and what were their total cost and total tonnage. [118356]

Mr. Hill: Detailed information for the last nine available years is presented in Table 7.8 of Maritime Statistics 1998, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House. This shows the number and value of expenditure of new ships delivered to UK private sector ship owners.

The information is summarised in the table.

Deliveries of new ships to UK private sector ship owners

	Number	Value of Expenditure (£ million)
1994	16	283
1995	13	472
1996	14	78
1997	25	298
1998	16	261

No information is readily available on the tonnage of these ships.

Mr. Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many foreign ships have been inspected under port state control

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arrangements in UK ports in each of the last five years; of those how many and what proportion had to be detained; and what percentage of inspected ships were found to have deficiencies. [118353]

Mr. Hill: The figures for foreign-flagged ships inspected by the UK under Port State Control are as follows:

Year	Number PSC Inspections	Number detained	Percentage detained	Percentage with deficiencies
1995-96	2,098	206	9.8	70.5
1996-97	1,880	157	8.4	71.3
1997-98	1,890	179	9.5	73.0
1998-99	1,980	155	7.8	74.8
1999-2000(9)	1,800	107	5.9	72.2

(9) Provisional figures

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Mr. Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many inspections were carried out by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each of the last five years. [118352]

Mr. Hill: The figures for the numbers of ships inspected by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each of the last five financial years are as follows:

Year	Part State Control Inspections	Inspections of UK Ships
1995-96	2,098	5,293
1996-97	1,880	4,626
1997-98	1,890	3,289
1998-99	1,980	3,668
1999-2000(10)	1,800	3,783

(10) Provisional figure

Mr. Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many marine surveyors were employed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each of the last five years. [118351]

Mr. Hill: Figures requested are given in the table. The Marine Safety Agency merged with the Coastguard Agency to become the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on 1 April 1998.

Staff in post, figures as at 31 March 2000

Year	Number
1996	166.5
1997	159
1998	160
1999	160
2000	149

Disabled Drivers

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what contingency plans he has made for providing continuing cover for parking for disabled drivers if badges were not received by 1 April; [118735]

(2) if he will make a statement on progress with the introduction of the new disabled parking badges. [118592]

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Mr. Hill: The regulations to introduce the new blue parking badge for disabled people came into effect on 1 April.

Distribution of the new blue badges took place during the last week in March to local authorities who had placed orders. The majority of those local authorities received badges ready for business on Monday, 3 April. However, owing to some technical problems at the printer/supplier, some authorities did not receive the badges until Tuesday, 4 April.

My Department were informed by our supplier at the end of March that some local authorities had not placed orders for badges, despite letters prompting them to do so from both the Department and the badge supplier. Officials have since written again to all local authorities on this issue. From the checks we have carried out, and from the information provided by the supplier, we believe almost all local authorities have placed orders and have received a supply of badges. We have, however, taken the precaution of writing to ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) asking them to advise members not to take enforcement action against anyone displaying an orange badge which expires in April which is otherwise being used in accordance with the regulations.

We regret that the transition has not been as smooth as we would have wished, but we hope the action we have taken will avoid any distress or confusion for any disabled motorist who has difficulty getting a blue badge.

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