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Airline Disinfection

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how a determination is made as to which flights arriving in the United Kingdom require pesticide disinfection. [25215]

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Mr. Spellar [holding answer 10 January 2002]: The port health authorities decide the routes into the United Kingdom on which disinfection of aircraft is required. They make their decisions in the light of the advice from the World Health Organisation on the risks to public health arising in different countries, either long-term or as the result of an outbreak of disease.

Road Deaths

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many road fatalities there were in each of the last five available years on (a) motorways, (b) dual carriageways and (c) single carriageways. [27378]

Mr. Spellar: The figures requested are as shown:

Road fatalities in Great Britain

	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Motorways	165	191	174	202	189
Other roads:
Dual carriageways	527	515	469	491	481
Single carriageways	2,824	2,800	2,680	2,629	2,641
Other(8)	74	87	88	94	90
Total	3,598	3,599	3,421	3,423	3,409

⁽⁸⁾ Includes roundabouts and one way streets

London Underground (Overtime)

Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will publish the total overtime payments in each of (a) the last seven years and (b) the last 12 months for each underground line. [27714]

Mr. Spellar: This is an operational matter for London Underground Ltd., who have provided the following information. The information is not available in the precise form requested.

London Underground Ltd. was reorganised in September 1999, in preparation for the introduction of modernisation plans. Under 'shadow running' arrangements, information is collected from each infrastructure company and the operations company, rather than on the 'line by line' basis that reflected London Underground's previous structure. The table therefore records operational staff and engineering staff overtime costs by line until 18 September 1999, and subsequently overtime costs for staff in each of London Underground's reorganised components. Overall totals cover the same groups of staff and so are comparable.

Overtime costs per financial year£000

	2000–01	1999–2000	1998–99	1997–98	1996–97	1995–96	1994–95
	Before reorganisation
Bakerloo	—	562	1,075	671	622	642	505
Central	—	1,255	2,552	1,908	2,081	1,759	1,536
District	—	945	1,659	1,514	1,787	1,722	1,549
Jubilee and East London	—	764	500	342	370	268	242
Metropolitan and Circle	—	1,222	2,078	1,632	1,370	1,408	1,330
Northern	—	732	1,379	910	968	1,363	1,006
Piccadilly	—	1,017	1,809	1,354	1,276	1,114	975
Victoria	—	327	564	530	596	479	391
Network Services and Engineering	—	5,257	10,973	10,023	9,880	10,538	9,239
After reorganisation
Stations	7,947	3,813	—	—	—	—	—
Trains	3,026	1,154	—	—	—	—	—
Infraco BCV	6,100	3,111	—	—	—	—	—
Infraco JNP	4,056	2,361	—	—	—	—	—
Infraco SSL	4,443	2,303	—	—	—	—	—
Total	25,572	24,821	22,589	18,884	18,950	19,293	16,773

Note:

For the year 1999–2000, figures in the upper part of the table are for the year to 18 September; figures in the lower part for the remainder of the year. Detailed monthly information is a matter for London Underground.

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British Merchant Marine

Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what recent representations he has received from the RMT on the competitiveness of the British merchant marine and related employment issues; and if he will make a statement. [27637]

Mr. Spellar [holding answer 15 January 2002]: The RMTs Acting General Secretary, Mr. Vernon Hince, wrote to my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Mr. Jamieson), recently to urge the extension of work permit requirements to one-port voyages. This is under consideration by the Home Office.

Mr. Hince also wrote to my hon. Friend last November about proposed dismissals of UK seafaring ratings by the P&O Group, a matter which was additionally raised at the

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4 December meeting of our Shipping Task Force.

We are deeply disappointed by the actions of P&O. These job losses are particularly regrettable at a time when we are seeing a revival in UK merchant shipping after a long decline, a revival to which the shipping unions have made an immense contribution.

Local Government Finance

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what proportion of total local authority expenditure was met in each of the last four years by (a) central Government funds, (b) business rate payers and (c) council tax payers. [27936]

Dr. Whitehead: English local authorities have reported the following funding of revenue expenditure.

	Revenue Expenditure(9)	Government Grant(10)		Non-Domestic Rates(11)		Council tax(12)
	£ billion	£ billion	Percentage	£ billion	Percentage	£ billion	Percentage
1998–99	50.189	25.291	50	12.531	25	12.332	24
1999–2000	53.651	26.421	49	13.619	25	13.278	25
2000–01	57.308	27.764	48	15.406	27	14.200	25
2001–02(13)	61.270	30.341	50	15.144	25	15.245	25

⁽⁹⁾ 'Revenue expenditure to compare with TSS' i.e. expenditure financed from Revenue Support Grant, specific and special grants within AEF, non-domestic rates, council taxes and balances. Also includes spending met by SSA Reduction Grant, Police Grant, Central Support Protection Grant (1999–2000 onwards) and General Greater London Authority Grant (2000–01 onwards). This column is not the total of the others. The difference is due to funding by balances and other adjustments.

⁽¹⁰⁾ Includes Revenue Support Grant, specific and special grants within AEF, SSA Reduction Grant, Police Grant, Central Support Protection Grant (1999–2000 onwards) and General GLA Grant (2000–01 onwards).

⁽¹¹⁾ Distribute amount from non-domestic rate pool. This is not exactly equal to the payments from business in any year, but adjustments are made to the distributable amount in future years to ensure that, over time, all rates received are redistributed to receiving authorities. Includes City Offset.

⁽¹²⁾ Gross of council tax benefit and council tax transitional reduction scheme.

⁽¹³⁾ Budgets.

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will investigate the settlement for local government with particular reference to the different sums that were allocated to smaller district authorities. [28261]

Dr. Whitehead: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has already looked into the local government settlement for district councils. In his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush (Mr. Soley) on 18 December 2001, Official Report, columns 136–37, he explained that he would introduce an alternative baseline for 2001–02 which, in effect, adjusts only for the transfers of service for which shire districts are responsible and that, in order to guarantee a minimum 2.3 per cent. increase for shire districts, he would ensure that all shire districts received a minimum grant increase of whichever increase is greater—2.3 per cent. on the original baseline, or 2.3 per cent. on this alternative baseline.

Further details will be provided as part of the Government's final settlement proposals, which the House will have a chance to debate on 30 January.

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