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Aviation

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he intends to commission a strategic study on the environmental impacts of aviation in the UK to match the strategic study of the economic impacts of aviation included in the Developing Aviation White Paper process. [1587]

Mr. Jamieson: In December last year we published a consultation document, "The Future of Aviation". This examined the main issues underpinning air transport policy, including the need to tackle the environmental effects of aviation. We are giving careful consideration to the responses to the consultation document and propose to publish a summary of them later this summer. Alongside the consultation document, we published a paper, "Valuing the External Costs of Aviation", which reviews some of the literature about the valuation of noise, air quality and climate change impacts and considers the implications of aviation meeting its estimated external costs.

The study of regional airports and regional air services announced in the 1998 Transport White Paper, covering the north of England, the midlands, the south-west of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was completed last year. The findings are currently being reviewed as part of a UK-wide Regional Co-ordination

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study. A key component of this process has been the commissioning of studies on the impact of air transport (including associated surface transport) on local air qualify and noise at 23 regional airports. This work will provide an important input to a comprehensive appraisal of options for development of capacity at regional airports under a range of potential national policy scenarios.

We are also studying issues in the south-east and east of England. The South East and East of England Regional Air Service Study (SERAS) is examining all options for future development of airports in the south-east and east of England. The appraisal process includes an examination of environmental impacts, including noise and local air quality, climate change, urbanisation, land-take, biodiversity, landscape, heritage and designated areas. We propose to issue individual regional consultation documents for all these regions around the turn of the year.

All of these strands of work will feed into the new air transport White Paper, which we hope to publish next year.

Ice Falls

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assessment his Department has made of the information leaflets available to report ice falls from aeroplanes; and what plans he has to make them more widely available. [1301]

Mr. Jamieson: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has produced a comprehensive leaflet entitled "Icefalls", which provides detailed information on how icefalls occur, how incidents can be reported and how these reports are investigated.

Members of the public wishing to seek more information on the subject or to report an icefall incident most commonly contact either the CAA directly or the local police or council. Copies of the leaflet have therefore been supplied to the Police Service and the Local Government Association as well as to the British Airports Authority. The information in the leaflet is also available on the CAA's website for those with internet access. There are currently no further plans to make the leaflet more widely available.

Transport Safety

Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what statistics he collates about the safety of different forms of transportation and the costs in each case of undertaking further measures to improve safety. [1472]

Mr. Jamieson: The DTLR collects and publishes statistics on accidents in all main forms of transport. These can be found in a variety of publications and in the compendium volume "Transport Statistics Great Britain 2000 edition". There is also a comparative table (Table 51) in "Road Accidents Great Britain: 1999" which shows casualty rates by mode of transport since 1990 and

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also provides a 1990–99 average casualty rate for each mode. Both of these publications are available in the Libraries of the House. Costs depend on the measures adopted and on local circumstances.

Ordnance Survey

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the operating results of Ordnance Survey were in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [1325]

Ms Keeble: As disclosed in Ordnance Survey's annual published accounts, the operating surplus/deficit for each year since 1997 is as follows:

£000
1996–97(1)(5,115)
1997–98(1)(2,197)
1998–99(1)(8,862)
1999–2000(2)12,590

(1) Deficit

(2) Surplus


Regional Planning

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when the Government plan to publish (1) a draft regional planning guidance for (a) the Nort-West and Merseyside, (b) the North-East and (c) the East Midlands; [1277]

Mr. Keeble: We plan to issue final regional planning guidance (RPG) for the South-West later this summer and final RPG for Yorkshire and the Humber in the autumn. The Proposed Changes to draft PRG for the East Midlands were published in April and we plan to issue the final version in the autumn. The Proposed Changes to draft PRG for the North-East were published in april and we plan to issue the final version by the end of the year. We intend to publish the Proposed Changes to draft (RPG) for the North-West in spring 2002, assuming that the Panel report is received shortly.

Postal Voting

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on the use and conduct of postal voting during the general and local elections in June. [1282]

Mr. Raynsford: The Electoral Commission, which was established by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, will publish a report on various aspects of the administration of the general election, in accordance with section 5 of the Act.

Local Government

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what reasons underlay the decision to publish the Local

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Authorities (Executive and Alternative Arrangements) (Modification of Enactments and Further Provisions) (England) Order 2001 on 18 June, revoke it on 19 June and publish the Local Authorities (Executive and Alternative Arrangements) (Modification of Enactments and Other Provisions) (England) Order 2001 on 19 June. [1477]

Mr. Raynsford: The Local Authorities (Executive and Alternative Arrangements) (Modification of Enactments and Further Provisions) (England) Order 2001 was laid before Parliament on 19 June 2001 and expressed to come into force on 20 June 2001, thus breaking the convention that negative resolution statutory instruments come into force at least 21 days after being laid before Parliament.

Unfortunately, it had not been the Government's intention to break the convention. Accordingly, the Order was revoked and replaced with an Order in similar terms—the Local Authorities (Executive and Alternative Arrangements) (Modification of Enactments and Other Provisions) (England) Order 2001—with a date of coming into force of 11 July, which is 21 days after it was laid. This means that all the necessary legislation is now in place to allow councils to implement the leader and cabinet form of executive arrangement.

Departmental Responsibility

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the areas of responsibility that have (a) been transferred from his Department to other Departments and (b) been transferred to his Department from other Departments since 8 June. [1439]

Dr. Whitehead: The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) came into existence on 9 June 2001. It will carry out all the functions for which its predecessor Department, the Department of the Environment. Transport and the Regions (DETR) was responsible except:







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