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Airport Slots
Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his
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answer of 4 April 2000, Official Report, columns 427-28W, concerning airport slots, which airports other than Heathrow are within the jurisdiction of ACL Ltd; to whom ACL is accountable for its operation of the EC Regulation; who pays the company; and if details of (a) ACL's contract and (b) the fees paid are available for public inspection. [118868]
Mr. Mullin: In addition to Heathrow, ACL has been appointed as co-ordinator under the EC Regulation for Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester airports. The company also acts on a non-statutory basis for Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Jersey, London City, London Luton, and Newcastle airports.
ACL's contract is with the airport operators; it is therefore in the first instance accountable to the airport. At the four fully co-ordinated airports, grievances could also be taken to the airport co-ordination committee, on which the airport operators, air carriers and air traffic control providers are represented. In addition, the Airport Slots Allocation Regulations 1993 place a statutory duty on airport co-ordinators to operate in accordance with the EC Regulation; their actions are challengeable in court. The Secretary of State has the power to withdraw his approval of the appointment of a co-ordinator if satisfied that the co-ordinator has acted other than in an independent manner.
75 per cent. of ACL's income comes from the fees that it charges to the airports where it acts as co-ordinator. About 21 per cent. comes from the 11 UK airlines that own the company, and the remainder from data sales, training and consultancy, and similar activity.
ACL's contracts are commercially sensitive and not available for public inspection. Its Annual Report and Accounts are available for inspection at Companies House.
London Underground
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) if he will conduct the test involving the public sector comparator for London Underground funding in public; [119020]
- (2) if he will (a) place the report by his financial advisers on the funding of London Underground in the Library and (b) ensure that the public sector comparator is published before any contracts are signed. [119021]
Mr. Hill: I refer to the answers given to my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Pound) on 21 December 1999, Official Report, columns 525-26W, and to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Mr. Brake) on 20 December 1999, Official Report, column 337W.
We have already placed in the Library of the House a detailed note describing the methodology London Transport has used to construct the public sector comparator against which bids for infrastructure improvement and maintenance contracts under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) will be tested. This methodology has been reviewed by KPMG as London Underground's independent, external auditors. They have confirmed that it accords with the relevant Treasury guidance and is appropriate to the circumstances of the PPP.
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We will release the actual values produced by the comparator only once negotiations with bidders have been completed. To publish these any earlier would expose the taxpayer's negotiating position, and thus jeopardise our chances of securing best value.
Similarly, when Pricewaterhouse submitted their report on the options for London Underground, we produced a summary of the facts and analysis that underpinned the decision to proceed with the PPP. This was published and placed in the Library of the House in March 1998. To release the Pricewaterhouse report in full would have compromised our negotiating position.
Rail Freight
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what extra grants he plans to offer to rail freight companies to enable them to increase the carriage of goods by rail. [119184]
Mr. Hill: This financial year we have set a Freight Grants budget of £50 million for companies who choose to move goods by rail rather than road.
Under the Transport Bill, administration of the grants will pass to the Strategic Rail Authority. The shadow SRA is looking at whether the existing schemes fit its objectives and strategies. It will be able to develop the existing schemes and to introduce new ones.
Budget (Transport Schemes)
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what the breakdown is of the £280 million for transport schemes announced in the press notices from his Department after the Budget; and how many of those schemes are for (a) road and (b) rail improvements. [119014]
Mr. Hill: Details of the allocation of £250 million additional resources for transport in England were set out in a reply to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, South (Mr. Marshall) on 24 March 2000, Official Report, columns 702-03W.
Ribble Estuary
Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the effect on wildfowl in the Ribble Estuary, Lancashire of global warming. [119100]
Mr. Mullin: My Department supports the UK Climate Impacts Programme at the University of Oxford to help organisations assess vulnerability to climate change. Three national projects concerning climate change impacts on biodiversity are currently in progress within the Programme, two of which are supported by my Department and MAFF. The first study is a general review of implications of climate change for nature conservation policies in the UK. The second is a project involving integrated assessments in two regions, NW England and East Anglia. The third is a modelling assessment of impacts on species and habitats in Britain and Ireland, including wildfowl in river estuaries. All three projects are in progress and the results have not yet been assessed. This is wider than, and would be applicable to, the Ribble Estuary, but no specific assessment has been made in the Ribble Estuary.
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Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans his Department has to increase monitoring of wildfowl in the Ribble Estuary, Lancashire. [119099]
Mr. Mullin: The Ribble Estuary has been monitored since 1970 through the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). The WeBS is a joint scheme of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) to monitor the non-breeding birds in the United Kingdom. Counts are made annually at around 2,000 wetland sites in the United Kingdom; estuaries and large still waters predominate. The Department believes the current monitoring of the Ribble Estuary to be sufficient.
Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what advice his Department has received from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and other wildlife organisations concerning the Ribble Estuary and global warming. [119098]
Mr. Mullin: Research contractors working for the Department, MAFF and the UK Water Industry have held consultations with a large number of stakeholders in NW England in connection with an on-going study of climate change impacts in NW England. However, the Department is not aware of any specific concerns raised about the Ribble Estuary.
Biosafety Protocol
Mr. Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when the United Kingdom plans to ratify the Biosafety Protocol agreed in Montreal. [118939]
Mr. Meacher: The United Kingdom intends to sign and ratify the Biosafety Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity at the earliest opportunity consistent with our European Community obligations. The Protocol will be open for signature at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, Kenya, by states and regional economic integration organisations from 15-26 May, and at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 5 June 2000 to 4 June 2001. The implications of the Protocol on the overall EU legislative framework must be fully assessed before ratification can be completed. As made clear in the Environment Council conclusions agreed on 30 March, we will be working with our European partners to ensure ratification as early as possible to ensure entry into force of the Protocol at an early stage.
Radioactive Waste Management
Advisory Committee
Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what resources are available to the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee to commission independent scientific, technical and other support studies from institutes and academic establishments; and what powers the Chairman of the Committee has to second relevant experts to assist the committee or its sub-committees. [119135]
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Mr. Meacher: The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee generally spends very little on supporting studies for its work. When it has, the sums involved have typically been of the order of £10,000 to £20,000 per annum. Under the Committee's agreed operational arrangements, the Chairman can, as appropriate, co-opt members with expertise relevant to particular work items.
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