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Railway Investment

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the total public sector investment in the railways was in 1995–96; and what it will be in 2010–11 in real terms based on 2001 prices. [40204]

Mr. Jamieson: Total investment in rail in 1995–96 was around £1.25 billion in 2000–01 prices which, within a mainly public sector rail industry, was all classified as public sector investment. Through the 10-year Plan, total investment in rail in 2010–11 is projected to be £3.6 billion in 2000–01 prices, of which £0.95 billion is estimated to directly funded public sector investment.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if his Department has conducted a sensitivity analysis on the impact of changes to the rate of return required by private sector investment in the 10-year plan. [40231]

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Mr. Jamieson: My Department has not carried out such an analysis.

Rail Safety

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how much his Department has spent on rail-related safety issues in each of the last three years. [40226]

Mr. Jamieson: Total rail safety expenditure by Government and the rail industry is not recorded in a manner to allow spending on safety to be identified separately. Much transport expenditure simultaneously delivers improvements in safety as well as other benefits.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what estimate he has made of the ratio between total rail safety spending in the United Kingdom and the number of passenger and freight journeys each year. [40228]

Mr. Jamieson: None.

Road Network

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he plans to privatise the main road network. [40286]

Mr. Jamieson: Private companies have had an important role in road building and maintenance for many years and the 10-year plan assumes that around 25 per cent. of new investment by value will be funded by the private sector. However there are no plans to transfer ownership of the road network to the private sector.

Spring Supply Estimates

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions for what purpose item lxxiv on page 8 of the Spring Supply Estimates is being transferred. [40235]

Mr. Jamieson: The purpose for which item lxxiv on page 8 of the Spring Supplementary Estimates 2001–02 is being transferred is explained in item lxxxii on page 9 of those estimates.

Western Region Trains

Jane Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the Passengers Charter measuring points are for train (a) punctuality and (b) performance on the Western Region franchise. [40306]

Mr. Jamieson: First Great Western single, return and weekly season ticket holders are compensated for journeys that are delayed by one hour or more. The threshold for compensating other season ticket holders is below 88 per cent. for punctuality and 98.2 per cent. for reliability.

Traffic Management

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assessment his Department makes of the impact of traffic management schemes in London on overall traffic flows. [39977]

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Mr. Jamieson: Assessment of the impact of traffic management schemes in London is the responsibility of Transport for London and the boroughs.

The Department makes forecasts of overall traffic flows, using the National Transport Model, and outputs from TfL's London Transportation Studies model. These are strategic models and do not represent every investment in the transport network in detail. In general, individual traffic management schemes are too small to be represented in either model and their impacts are modelled by the Department in aggregate.

High Hedges

Phil Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what action he has taken on legislation to control the nuisance caused by Leylandii and other high hedges. [40258]

Ms Keeble: The Government will introduce legislation giving local authorities the power to deal with complaints about high hedges as soon as there is space in the parliamentary timetable. We supported the Private Member's Bill on this issue introduced by the hon. Member for Solihull (Mr. Taylor) in the last session of Parliament and were disappointed that the Bill failed to complete all its stages before the election.

Guidelines commissioned by my Department, which provide an objective method for assessing whether high hedges block out too much light to adjoining properties, were published on our website in December. These guidelines are likely to be a factor for local authorities to take into account when determining complaints under a future statutory scheme. In the meantime, we want to encourage people to apply the guidelines and use the results to settle disputes with their neighbours amicably. We are preparing a leaflet specifically designed for this purpose, which we expect to launch in the spring.

Road Accidents

Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what recent assessment he has made of the annual cost of road crashes including those crashes not reported to the police. [40549]

Mr. Jamieson: The value of prevention of injury accidents reported to the police in 2000 is estimated to be £12,170 million. A further £4,790 million is attributed to damage only accidents which are generally not reported to the police.

Electoral Register

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he will provide advice to local authorities on the supply of copies of electoral registers following the judgment in the Robertson case; and if he will make a statement. [40367]

Dr. Whitehead [holding answer 4 March 2002]: The Robertson case raises complex and difficult legal and policy issues in relation to the sale of electoral registers which we and the Electoral Commission are currently considering very carefully. It is for the Electoral

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Commission to issue advice to local authorities in this matter and it has already posted interim advice on its website.

Traffic Congestion

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how the Galileo navigation system may be deployed to tackle road traffic congestion; and if he will make a statement. [40309]

Mr. Jamieson [holding answer 4 March 2002]: How and when Galileo could be deployed to help tackle road traffic congestion will depend on timing and technical decisions yet to be taken.

Satellite navigation is used as an embedded technology in many intelligent transport systems (ITS) such as in-car navigation, passenger and traffic information, vehicle tracking and fleet management systems. It has the potential to be used in road user charging.

At present ITS use data from the US Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. The European Commission has proposed that Galileo be developed as an independent satellite navigation system but inter-operable with GPS. The Transport Council on 26 March is expected to take decisions on the development and validation phase (2002–05) of Galileo. Subject to this work, further decisions would be required to proceed to deploy Galileo and begin operation in 2008. In principle, therefore, Galileo and GPS could jointly provide a navigation service from that date.

School Bus Schemes

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what plans he has to implement fully the provisions of the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations in respect of yellow school bus schemes; and if he will make a statement on reasons for which the pilot schemes were exempted from the regulations. [40769]

Ms Keeble: The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations apply to new vehicles used on local or scheduled services where passengers are carried at separate fares. The key features of the yellow bus scheme are that it is only open to children and non-fare paying adults, that each child has a designated seat, and that the scheme is being monitored by my Department. Exemptions were given from two provisions of the regulations dealing with route and destination information, and improved seat dimensions. The exemptions will be reviewed in the light of the results of the monitoring. The vehicles comply with all other aspects of the regulations.

Structure Plan (Gloucestershire)

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on the Third Review of the Structure Plan in Gloucestershire. [40708]

Ms Keeble [holding answer 5 March 2002]: Gloucestershire county council have started the process of reviewing their structure plan, following the adoption in November 1999 of Gloucestershire Structure Plan 2nd Review to 2011. The county put out an Issues Paper for consultation, between 12 February and 30 March

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2001. Responses to the Issues Paper were considered by the county in July 2001. A Draft Deposit Plan is due to be published during winter 2002. Further details for the structure plan timetable are yet to be confirmed.

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