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Bridges

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many bridges there are in England on recognised public highways; how many of these were strengthened to current standards by 31 December 1999; and what is the estimated cost of strengthening the remainder of these bridges to the new standard of weight which will come into force next year. [133122]

Mr. Hill: There are some 60,900 bridges in England on roads maintainable at the public expense. 8,500 are on trunk roads and 52,400 on local roads.

EC Directive 85/3/EC requires the United Kingdom to allow the use on principal routes of vehicles of 40 tonnes weight with 11.5 tonne axle loads from 1 January 1999. Of those bridges requiring to be strengthened to take these vehicles, some 4,450 were strengthened by the end of March this year. We estimate that about 3,400 remain to be strengthened, at a cost of some £800 million.

Consultation will take place soon on whether to allow 44 tonne vehicles, subject to certain technical constraints. Any decision would depend upon the results of that consultation. These 44 tonne vehicles would not require extra bridge strengthening above that necessary for the 40 tonne vehicles already permitted.

Vehicle Clamping

Ms Atherton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what regulations govern the clamping of vehicles; and who monitors local practice by those agents responsible for this. [133224]

Mr. Hill: Under the Vehicle Excise Duty (Immobilisation, Removal and Disposal of Vehicles) Regulations 1997, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has powers to clamp road-going vehicles that are unlicensed and on a public road to enforce the payment of vehicle excise duty. Under the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and the Road Traffic Act 1991, local authorities have powers to remove unlicensed vehicles abandoned on a public road or to clamp licensed vehicles which are unlawfully parked on a public road. In all these circumstances the operation of clamping is closely regulated, with a right of appeal and a maximum release fee specified by the Secretary of State.

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There are no statutory regulations governing the clamping of vehicles left on private land but my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has announced an intention to include such a provision in the proposed legislation on the private security industry, when parliamentary time allows.

London Underground Escalators

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many London Underground station escalators have been out of service for (a) up to three months, (b) up to six months and (c) longer than six months. [133213]

Mr. Hill: This is an operational matter for London Underground, which informs me that out of 34 escalators out of service in July, 13 have been out of service for no more than three months, 12 for no more than six months and nine longer than six months.

Planning

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many appeals to the Planning Inspectorate against local authority planning decisions were (a) allowed and (b) rejected; how many such appeal decisions were taken to judicial review and what was the (i) outcome of such proceedings and (ii) cost of the Planning Inspectorate in the last convenient period for which figures are available. [133361]

Ms Beverley Hughes: I have asked the Chief Executive of the Planning Inspectorate, Chris Shepley, to write to the hon. Gentleman, because the question relates to decisions made by planning inspectors.

Letter from Chris Shepley to Mr. Don Foster, dated 28 July 2000:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your Question about planning appeal decisions and the number that are the subject of judicial review.

For the year 1999-2000 planning inspectors decided 12,411 planning appeals in England. Of these 4,485 were allowed and 7,926 dismissed. To date, 84 decisions have been the subject of a legal challenge and of these 17 have been withdrawn. In a further 11 cases we have accepted that the decision contained an error in law and the appeals are being reconsidered. 11 cases have been heard in court and we wee successful in resisting all but one challenge. The remaining 45 cases have yet to be settled.

Turning to your final question, I am unsure what costs you are interested in. The costs associated with High Court challenges may accrue over several years so it is not possible to give you a precise figure as to how much the challenges made last year will cost. However, on average we estimate that a challenge costs us about £5,300. The total cost of running the Inspectorate in 1999/2000 was £33m.

BNFL

Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what consultation he had with (a) Ministers and (b) officials from the Department of Trade and Industry prior to the announcement of 11 July in respect of the payments to be made as a result of the agreement to return MOX fuel from Japan to Sellafield. [133453]

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Mr. Meacher: There was no consultation between Ministers or officials from my Department and the Department of Trade and Industry over the payments to be made as a result of the agreement to return to Sellafield the MOX fuel currently stored at Takahama.

Rents

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what was the percentage of rent determinations made by the Rent Service where the appropriate rent was in excess of the local reference rent in (a) England and Wales and (b) Scotland, in each of the last three years; [133263]

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(2) what was the average level of rent restriction following a local reference rent determination in (a) England and Wales and (b) each local authority area, in each of the last three years; [133264]

(3) what percentage of rent officer determinations exceeded the local reference rent in (a) England and Wales and (b) Scotland, in each of the last three years. [133262]

Mr. Mullin: Information on rent determinations is not available for Scotland. The figures in the following table are for rent determinations for private lettings in England and Wales for 1996, 1997, 1998 and for the first quarter of 1999.

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	1996	1997	1998	(1)1999
Rent officer determinations where property specific rent (PSR) was greater than the local reference rent (LRR)(1)	40.0	43.5	43.3	43.1
Rent officer determinations where appropriate rent (AR) was greater than the local reference rent (LRR)(1)	35.9	38.9	38.2	37.9
Average rent restriction where appropriate rent (AR) was greater than the local reference rent (LRR)(1)	7.58	7.16	6.91	6.71

⁽¹⁾ First quarter of 1999.

⁽¹⁾ Percentage of.

⁽¹⁾ £ per week.

Source:

Rent Officer Statistics, published quarterly by DETR

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The Property Specific Rent (PSR) is the Rent Officer's initial determination before taking into account other circumstances which culminate in the determination of an appropriate rent for the property: whether the landlord's referred rent is exceptionally high or whether the property is too large compared with the number of occupants.

Rent determinations for different local authorities are not published. A breakdown by rent officer area can be produced, but not within the time available. I will write separately with these figures as soon as possible.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 5 July 2000, Official Report, column 185W, what standard liquidated damages clauses are included in private finance initiative contracts for (a) roads and (b) other transport infrastructure for which his Department has responsibility; how these are specified; and if he will make a statement. [133367]

Mr. Hill: This information will take a little time to collect for the range of PFI transport projects. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as it is available.

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 21 July 2000, Official Report, column 351W, on PFI, if he will list the rate of return for each of the eight trunk road DBFO projects; and if he will make a statement. [133276]

Mr. Hill: No. This information is commercially confidential.

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 5 July 2000, Official Report, column 185W, on PFI contracts, if he will list the number

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of points accumulated for each road scheme; for which reason each of these points was awarded; what penalties were invoked; and if he will make a statement. [133251]

Mr. Hill: The overall performance of our PFI contracts is good. I am content with the point system in PFI contracts for roads and it is subject to confidentiality agreements within its contracts. Most points have been awarded during the construction phase of the contracts. During operations it has been necessary to award fewer points.

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