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Departmental Accounting Office
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what are the purpose and functions of his Department's additional accounting officer; and when this post was created. [127128]
Ms Beverley Hughes: The Department's additional accounting officer has direct responsibility for Class III Vote 4, Local government, England, and the White Paper account relating to the Pooling of Non-Domestic Rates and Redistribution to Local Authorities in England. This appointment was made following departmental restructuring on 1 April 1998. The Permanent Secretary, as principal Accounting Officer, continues to have personal responsibility for the overall organisation, management and staffing of the department.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Maclennan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many written parliamentary questions tabled to his Department between 19 October 1999 and 20 April 2000 have not received substantive answers, excluding those not answered on grounds (a) of disproportionate cost, (b) that the information is not available, not held centrally, or not held in the form requested and (c) of commercial or other confidentiality. [127098]
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Ms Beverley Hughes [holding answer 21 June 2000]: I assume the right hon. Member is referring to parliamentary questions where Ministers indicate in their response that they will write to hon. Members to provide the information requested. If so, there have been 25 such cases, out of a total of 2,865 parliamentary questions answered by my Department in the period in question.
Mr. Maclennan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions on how many occasions he has deposited papers in the Library in response to parliamentary questions tabled to his Department between 19 October 1999 and 20 April 2000. [127337]
Ms Beverley Hughes: For the period in question, my Department has deposited papers in the Library in response to parliamentary questions on 240 occasions.
Air Traffic Control
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what actions were taken by (a) his Department and (b) NATS between 9 June and 17 June in order to ensure that the breakdown on 9 June was not repeated. [127239]
Mr. Mullin: Following the computer problem at West Drayton on 9 June, the Department urgently requested: information from National Air Traffic Services Ltd. (NATS) on the nature and cause of the problem; and reassurance that immediate steps were being taken to rectify the fault to ensure that it would not happen again. When a further computer problem occurred on 17 June NATS contacted the Department with detailed information on this incident and the remedial action being taken.
NATS has advised that the causes of the failures were two unrelated application software design faults triggered in established and hitherto correctly functioning systems. The incident on 9 June was traced to an application code which failed to correctly process an unusual flight plan dealing with a flight to Hamburg which required complex co-ordination with an adjacent air traffic control centre (Copenhagen). Immediate action was taken to issue an operational procedure to all units affected not to file flight plans which could cause this problem.
The failure on 17 June resulted from a latent design fault in the flight strip printing system. The failure was cleared by reverting to a previous version of the software and as an additional precautionary measure a system message has been input which actively prevents the system from exercising the faulty code sequence.
As a permanent solution NATS is producing design fixes for both faults. These are currently undergoing test and assurance processes with NATS' operational engineering staff as a matter of high priority.
Mr. Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when his Department's latest Air Traffic Forecasts will be published. [127814]
Mr. Mullin: The air traffic forecasts referred to are published by my Department every three years and reflect the intention to monitor air traffic developments and to keep assumptions and methodologies under review.
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I have now approved the revised forecasts and agreed to their publication. Copies have been placed in the House Libraries and will shortly be on the DETR website.
Index of Local Deprivation
Ms Glenda Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the impact on the level of regeneration funding for London boroughs of the new index of local deprivation. [127161]
Ms Beverley Hughes: Decisions about the level of funding of domestic regeneration programmes is subject to the outcome of the spending review, which is expected to be announced next month. The index of local deprivation is still being finalised and is expected to be published later in the summer.
Birmingham Northern Relief Road
Mr. McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when work is to start on the Birmingham Northern Relief Road. [127787]
Mr. Hill: The Highways Agency is currently making progress with arrangements for the compulsory purchase of land. Work to clear the site will be undertaken in the autumn and will continue into next year in preparation for construction to start in the spring. A copy of an edited
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version of the Concession Agreement prepared in accordance with the judgment of the High Court has been placed in the Library.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Eurodac
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on planned UK participation in the Eurodac system. [127196]
Mrs. Roche: My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced on 7 October 1999 that the United Kingdom was opting in the draft Regulation to establish Eurodac. The United Kingdom continues to play a full part in the discussion on this text, on which the European Parliament is now to be re-consulted.
Domestic Fires
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people (a) died and (b) were injured in domestic fires in each of the last five years, and, of these, what proportion of the fires occurred in houses in multiple occupation. [127008]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The information is given in the table.
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| 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998(5) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of fatal casualties in dwellings | 488 | 559 | 564 | 562 | 506 |
| Number of non-fatal casualties in dwellings | 12,916 | 13,108 | 14,189 | 14,896 | 14,970 |
| Number of fires in all dwellings involving casualties | 9,008 | 9,237 | 10,033 | 10,454 | 10,463 |
| Number of fires in multi occupancy dwellings(6) involving casualties | 3,861 | 3,997 | 4,551 | 4,716 | 4,724 |
| Percentage | 43 | 43 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
(3) Including late call and heat and smoke damage incidents (not recorded prior to 1994).
(4) Dwelling locations include caravans, houseboats and other non-building structures used as permanent dwellings.
(5) The 1998 casualty information is provisional and will be revised for later publication after death certificate information has been finalised.
(6) Multi occupancy dwellings are those in which the building has been subdivided into separate domestic living areas whether or not part of the building is used for a non-domestic purpose.
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Hunting with Dogs
Mr. Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the total cost of the Burns Inquiry into hunting with dogs. [126901]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: I will write to my hon. Friend as soon as the final cost is known.
Metropolitan Police
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the (a) current strength and (b) number of officers actually available for duty in the Metropolitan Police Service. [127313]
Mr. Straw: I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that the strength of the force at the end of May was 25,484. This figure includes officers on secondment to The National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Crime Squad and central services.
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When these are excluded the strength of the Metropolitan Police is 24,966. The number of officers available for duty at the end of May was 24,966.
These figures are not comparable with those for previous years because of changes to the boundaries of the Metropolitan Police District. Responsibility and resources for those parts of Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey previously policed by the Metropolitan Police were transferred to the relevant county forces with effect from 1 April 2000.
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