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Legal Advisers
Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many legal advisers are employed by his Department; and how many of those advise on matters relating to animals. [138921]
Mr. Mullin: The number of legal advisers employed by the Department is 84. None of the Department's lawyers advises exclusively on matters relating to animals, although the protection of endangered species and legislation relating to zoos are among the matters on which they do advise.
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Rail Fares
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what powers the Rail Regulator has in relation to fare increases by train operating companies. [139522]
Mr. Hill: The Franchising Director regulates fare increases through the franchise agreements he has with train operating companies. Train operators are not allowed to increase key fares by more than RPI-1 per cent. annually. This includes all saver tickets (or unrestricted Standard Returns where no Saver exists) and standard Weekly Season tickets. Further controls apply to London commuter fares, where the cap can be adjusted by ±2 per cent. depending upon performance. The Rail Regulator does have powers under the Competition Act 1998 to investigate train operators where he has reasonable grounds to believe that they are charging excessive prices.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make representations to the Rail Regulator concerning the decision by First Great Western to prohibit saver fares from being used by commuters. [139521]
Mr. Hill: Franchise agreements stipulate that saver tickets need not be valid before 1030 on weekdays, nor for any journey beginning between 1500 and 1900 on certain flows from London, in line with the restrictions which existed under British Rail. It is a matter for train operating companies to decide whether or not to offer saver tickets in peak hours.
Grants
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what his policy is on the level of renovation grant aid available to individual householders; [139688]
- (2) what support is available to residents of park homes with specific reference to (a) home repairs assistance and (b) disabled facilities grant. [139689]
Mr. Mullin: Renovation grants, which are given at the discretion of local authorities, are calculated on the basis of the cost of the relevant works and the amount the applicant can afford to contribute. They have no upper limit. There is a limit of £20,000 for disabled facilities grants, which are mandatory, but local authorities have discretion to pay more. Home repair assistance, which is available for smaller works, is limited to £2,000 per grant.
Residents of park homes are eligible for renovation grants, home repair assistance and disabled facilities grants if they meet the other criteria for the grants. The grants are available to both owners and tenants but, for a renovation grant or disabled facilities grant, the owner of the dwelling must also own the land on which it is stationed. Where a grant is not available, the local authority has the option of assisting in other ways, for example by offering a tenancy in its own housing or nomination to a registered social landlord.
The Housing Green Paper, which we published in April, contained proposals to reform the legislation governing renovation grants and home repair assistance. We will announce shortly how we propose to proceed with those reforms.
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Local Government Officers
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what discussions he has had with the Local Government Association on the subject of early retirement for local government officers. [139695]
Ms Armstrong: The Department's officials work closely with a wide range of interested parties on all aspects of the Local Government Pension Scheme. They are in regular touch with the Local Government Association on the subject of early retirement for local government officers, and on pension matters generally.
European Structural Funds (North-west)
Mr. Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the timing of decisions concerning ERDF Objective 2 funding for the North-west for 2000 to 2006. [138649]
Ms Beverley Hughes: The North-west region will receive Structural Fund moneys through a number of channels. The bulk of these will be delivered through the Objective 2 Single Programming Document. This document is still the subject of negotiation between the Government Office for the North-west and the European Commission.
It is difficult to predict the precise time that the negotiations will be completed. The document is then the subject of consideration by the Commission's internal services committee, a process taking about four weeks. It is currently anticipated that the document will be presented to either the January or February committees for approval.
Pedestrian Crossing Accidents
Mr. Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many (a) fatal accidents and (b) serious injuries have occurred on pelican and zebra crossings in each of the last 20 years. [139605]
Mr. Hill: The numbers of pedestrians killed and seriously injured on pelican and zebra crossings in Great Britain is shown in the table:
| Fatal | Serious | |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 115 | 1,064 |
| 1981 | 96 | 996 |
| 1982 | 110 | 1,156 |
| 1983 | 112 | 1,087 |
| 1984 | 92 | 1,114 |
| 1985 | 92 | 1,146 |
| 1986 | 122 | 1,192 |
| 1987 | 93 | 1,011 |
| 1988 | 103 | 1,114 |
| 1989 | 87 | 1,039 |
| 1990 | 97 | 1,079 |
| 1991 | 102 | 902 |
| 1992 | 80 | 895 |
| 1993 | 74 | 763 |
| 1994 | 73 | 766 |
| 1995 | 49 | 721 |
| 1996 | 71 | 707 |
| 1997 | 60 | 742 |
| 1998 | 51 | 664 |
| 1999 | 53 | 572 |
In some cases a fatal accident may have resulted in more than one casualty and the table shows the total number of fatalities rather than accidents. Only pedestrian casualties have been included in these figures.
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Lead Piping
Mr. Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many homes are connected to the domestic water supply system by lead piping in each region of the UK. [139608]
Mr. Mullin: Detailed estimates of the number of homes connected by lead piping were made in 1991-92 in England and Wales. The information is presented in the following table where:
- communication pipe is the pipe connecting the water main to the stopcock at the boundary of the property and is owned by the water company,
- supply pipe is the pipe from the stopcock to the property and is owned by the property owner,
- internal plumbing is the pipe within the property to the kitchen tap which is owned by the property owner.
| Millions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Communication pipe | Supply pipe | Internal plumbing |
| North West | 1.75 | 1.67 | 2.09 |
| North East | 1.43 | 1.44 | 1.40 |
| Midlands | 1.50 | 1.60 | 1.60 |
| East | 0.49 | 0.48 | 0.15 |
| Wales | 0.33 | 0.45 | 0.23 |
| South West | 0.40 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
| South East | 0.43 | 0.42 | 0.38 |
| South | 1.92 | 2.49 | 0.82 |
| Total | 8.25 | 8.92 | 7.02 |
Drinking Water (Nitrate Contamination)
Mr. Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many homes in the UK have been affected by nitrate contamination in drinking water by region of the UK in each of the last 10 years. [139607]
Mr. Mullin: The information is not available in the form requested. Since 1990 the Drinking Water Inspectorate has published annually information relating to compliance with drinking water quality standards in England and Wales, including the nitrate standard of 50 milligrams per litre. The available information is summarised in the following table:
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Between 1990 and 1996, water companies completed major programmes of treatment to reduce nitrate concentrations in drinking water supplies in response to enforcement action taken by the Drinking Water Inspectorate. Failures to meet the nitrate standard are now very rare. The Inspectorate continues to take enforcement action when failures recur in a particular supply.
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