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E-Government

Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he will publish local authorities e-Government implementation reports; and if he will place these in the Library. [35467]

Dr. Whitehead: I am making arrangements for copies of 'Implementing E-Government' statements to be placed in the House of Commons Library, and in my

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Department's own library. At the same time we will be asking local authorities to place their statements on their website, though many have done so already.

Trans-European Transport Networks

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the Government's position is on Trans-European Transport Networks; and if he will make a statement. [35855]

Mr. Spellar: On 3 October 2001, the European Commission adopted proposals to amend the guidelines which govern the development of the network. An explanatory memorandum (12597) on the proposals was submitted to Parliament on 2 November 2001. A public consultation exercise was mounted on 17 January and the closing date for responses is 28 February. The Government will determine their formal position on the Commission's proposals in the light of the comments they receive. On 3 January 2002 the Commission adopted a proposal to amend the regulation which lays down general rules for Community financing of the trans-European networks. An explanatory memorandum (15111) on that proposal was submitted to Parliament on 31 January. The memorandum makes clear that the Government support the development of the trans-European network but do not support the Commission's proposal to increase the maximum level of EU support for certain transport projects from 10 per cent. to 20 per cent. of total investment costs.

RMT Action

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many days have been lost to industrial action since 1 January 2002 as a result of action taken by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union. [35987]

Mr. Spellar: There have been four days of industrial action on Arriva Trains Northern and six days on South West Trains by members of the RMT.

Union Duties

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many staff in his Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies receive paid leave to undertake union duties; how many days they are allocated; and what has been the cost to public funds in each of the last four years. [36202]

Dr. Whitehead: The number of staff who received paid leave to undertake union duties (excluding health and safety activity) in my Department and its agencies ¹ in each of the last four years are set out as follows, the majority of whom are part-time representatives:

	Number
1998	277
1999	267
2000	263
2001	270

The total number of days allocated to the staff above in each of the last four years are as follows:

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	Number
1998	7,138
1999	7,064
2000	7,043
2001	7,090

The costs of time spent on industrial relations and/or trade union activities, based on average salary costs, in each of the last four years are as follows:

	£
1998	625,000
1999	655,893
2000	605,380
2001	684,166

⁽⁴⁴⁾ The figures given do not include the Fire Services College who only became an executive agency within DTLR as a result of the Machinery of Government Changes in June 2001.

Publicity Expenditure

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assessment he has made of the total real terms expenditure of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies on publicity in each of the years (a) 1997–98, (b) 1998–99, (c) 1999–2000, (d) 2000–01 and (e) 2001–02 (i) to date and (ii) as estimated for the whole of the present year; and if he will break these figures down to indicate expenditure on (A) advertising and (B) press and public relations. [36167]

Dr. Whitehead: For details of how my Department assesses its campaigns, I refer the hon. Member to the reply by the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Beverley Hughes), to the hon. Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison) on 20 December 2000, Official Report, columns 168–69W.

For details of expenditure on advertising over the years requested and our estimate for expenditure in the current financial year, I refer the hon. Member to the above reply and to my reply to the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) on 24 January 2002, Official Report, column 1037W.

For details of expenditure on PR consultants in support of our campaigns, I refer the hon. Member to my previous reply to the hon. Member on 15 January 2002, Official Report, column 207W. Following the change of Department responsibilities after the last general election, figures for 1997–98 could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The details requested for DTLR's Agency and NDPB expenditure are not held centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.

Departmental Website

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the total cost of his Department's website was in real terms in each of the last four years; and how many hits it received in each of those years. [36140]

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Dr. Whitehead: The estimated cost of the main DTLR website (www.dtlr.gov.uk) in 2001–02 is £396,000. This covers the period from 8 June 2001 to 31 March 2002 and includes direct staff costs (e.g. salaries), development and HTML coding costs. Overhead costs, such as accommodation are not held centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Since the creation of DTLR, to 31 January 2002, this site has had approximately 22,700,000 page requests. The estimated total to 31 March 2002 is 28,700,000.

Information, prior to 8 June 2001, relating to DTLR's ambit of responsibilities, is not available in a comparable format and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

Channel Tunnel (Freight)

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he expects the full resumption of channel tunnel freight services to be announced; what discussions he has had with the French authorities on the resumption of channel tunnel freight services; and what compensation is available to British companies denied full access. [36044]

Mr. Spellar: Early resumption of full services is dependent on the implementation of additional security measures—both physical and police resources—at the Calais Fréthun yard so that SNCF can effectively prevent disruptions to operation.

My right hon. Friends the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and the Home Secretary have all written to their French counterparts to ask that all necessary measures are put in place as soon as possible, to enable full rail freight services to resume. The Home Office and their French opposite numbers are working together closely to deal with the underlying immigration issues. I am keeping closely in touch with developments. The British Ambassador visited Calais on 31 January and discussed the problem with the Prefect.

Compensation is a contractual matter between SNCF and its customers.

Health and Safety Laboratory

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the cost of the PFI project to rationalise the estate of the Health and Safety Laboratory has been in each year since 1997. [36288]

Dr. Whitehead: The resource accounting costs of external advisers to the project, as provided in HSL's published annual report and accounts, are:

	£000
1997–98	496
1998–99	554
1999–2000	732
2000–01	890

Information for 2001–02 is not yet available.

The internal staff costs of the Department and of HSE have not been separately maintained.

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Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what estimate he has made of the cost of the delay in taking forward the PFI project to rationalise the estate of the Health and Safety Laboratory. [36287]

Dr. Whitehead: The work of the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) is varied and often unique. It has been important, therefore, to ensure that both the output specification for the laboratory has been carefully defined and that the preferred bidder's response has fully reflected the specialist nature of the requirement. This has taken some time to achieve. The costs associated with these activities have not been separately kept, nevertheless the overall scheme has been shown to be affordable to HSL and to represent best overall value for money both for the tax payer and for HSL. It is anticipated that negotiations will now be successfully concluded very shortly enabling construction work to begin, with anticipated completion in the late summer of 2004.

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