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Road Maintenance

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if trunk roads maintenance contractors have been found in breach of their obligations in respect of their duties in relation to the trunk road network in the last 12 months. [47939]

Mr. Jamieson: There have been no firms in significant default of obligations in the last 12 months. If small failings in terms of achieving specific levels of service or in defects in work occur the Highways Agency require firms to rectify them and demonstrate how they will be prevented from happening again. Provided firms respond appropriately to these failings then they would not be considered to be in overall breach of contract.

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what default notices have been issued to trunk roads maintenance contractors in the last 12 months. [47937]

Mr. Jamieson: No default notices have been issued in the last 12 months.

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if the provision of his Department's contracts with trunk roads maintenance contractors concerning the company's failure to perform its obligations have been made public; and what the reasons are for his policy. [47942]

Mr. Jamieson: The provisions concerning the company's failure to perform its obligations, contained in the Conditions of Contract, have not been made public because no requests for such information have been received. Standard terms and conditions covering non-performance can be made available.

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what statutory powers he possesses under trunk roads maintenance contracts to issue directions, orders or instructions to the maintenance companies in respect of fulfilling obligations under the contract with particular reference to instructions to use more equipment and materials. [47936]

Mr. Jamieson: The Highways Agency acting on behalf of the Secretary of State has contractual powers rather than statutory powers to instruct changes. These powers

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are limited by the European directives aimed at ensuring fair competition, but the Highways Agency can instruct changes within the scope of the contract.

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if the contracts with trunk roads maintenance contractors have been reviewed after they were awarded; and what penalties his Department may incur should it decide to cancel a contract on the grounds of non-performance. [47944]

Mr. Jamieson: Contracts have been reviewed since their award and will continue to be so on a regular basis. If a contractor failed to perform and was in significant breach of their obligations then the contract could be terminated without any compensation, although in most cases the Highways Agency would expect to work with the contractor to remedy any concerns before resorting to termination.

10 Apr 2002 : Column 108W

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if provisions of its contract with trunk roads maintenance contractors are made public. [47940]

Mr. Jamieson: Provisions of contracts with trunk road maintenance contractors, which are commercially confidential, are not made public. Generic documents (model contract) including standard terms and conditions can be made available.

Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many workers working on roads and motorways have been (a) killed and (b) injured by vehicles in each of the last five years. [45955]

Dr. Whitehead: The number of injuries to workers hit by vehicles occurring in the processes of road repairs and surfacing, and in street cleaning and verge maintenance, 1996–97 to 2000–01 ¹ .

	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01(14)
	Fatal injuries
Road repairs/surfacing/maintenance	3	2	2	2	5
Road verge maintenance	—	—	—	—	1
	Major injuries
Road repairs/surfacing/maintenance	14	10	12	14	10
Road verge maintenance	1	2	—	1	—
	Over three day injuries
Road repairs/surfacing/maintenance	23	20	19	23	19
Road verge maintenance	—	3	1	2	2

⁽¹⁴⁾ Provisional

Note:

The question seeks injuries to workers on roads and motorways. These statistics relate to workers which includes employees and self-employed people.

Traffic Accidents

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on traffic accident (a) fatalities and (b) serious injuries for each of the last five years. [47425]

Mr. Jamieson: The casualty statistics for Great Britain for 2001 are still being compiled. The numbers of people killed and seriously injured in the five previous years were as follows:

	Killed	Seriously injured
1996	3,598	44,499
1997	3,599	42,984
1998	3,421	40,834
1999	3,423	39,122
2000	3,409	38,155

One of the targets in the Government's road safety strategy "Tomorrow's roads—safer for everyone" is to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries by 40 per cent. compared with the average for the years 1994 to 1998. The 41,564 deaths and serious injuries in 2000 is 13 per cent. less than the average. We shall be reviewing our targets next year to ensure that they remain both achievable and challenging.

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many road traffic accidents there were in Herefordshire in the last five years that led to fatalities and serious injuries; and if he will make a statement. [46553]

Mr. Jamieson: The information is as follows:

Herefordshire

	Serious injury	Fatal
1997	270	16
1998	208	24
1999	179	13
2000	172	12
2001	179	19

The number of killed and seriously injured (KSI) casualties continued to fall to 2000 but there was a slight increase in 2001. The KSI trend is on track to at least meet, if not exceed the national target set for 2010 of a 40 per cent. reduction from the 1994–98 baseline average.

Road Safety

Mrs. Mahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many (a) schools and (b) local groups benefited from a local authority-run (i) pedestrian and (ii) cycle training courses in 2001. [45664]

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Mr. Jamieson: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how much of his Department's road safety publicity budget was spent on producing television filler advertisements in 2001; and how much it intends to spend on producing television filler advertisements in 2002. [46236]

Dr. Whitehead: The Department committed approximately £230,000 to producing television filler advertisements in 2001–02; these will be aired from 2002 onwards. It intends to commit approximately £200,000 in 2002–03, covering, among other things, horse riding, mobile phones and bad weather.

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Employer's Liability Insurance

Ross Cranston: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assessment he has made of the change in premiums for employers' liability insurance (a) in the last five years and (b) since 11 September 2001; and if he will make a statement. [46301]

Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply.

The terms, conditions and price of insurance products change constantly in response to market conditions.

I am not aware of any significant changes directly attributable to 11 September, except in the availability of insurance against terrorism risk.

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EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Advertising

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the expenditure was per campaign for the five most expensive media advertising campaigns her Department undertook in the past five parliamentary Sessions including the current parliamentary Session in (a) England, (b) Wales and (c) Northern Ireland; and, for the last two parliamentary Sessions and the current Session, when each advertising campaign (i) began and (ii) ended in (A) England, (B) Wales and (C) Northern Ireland. [37415]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department does not target Wales and Northern Ireland (or Scotland) with its advertising. This means that regional media outside England is not used for departmental advertising. However, our campaigns do unavoidably receive some coverage in Wales and Northern Ireland through the use of national newspapers, satellite television and other national media which reaches outside England.

It is not possible to provide the information as requested by parliamentary Session, except at disproportionate cost. The figures by financial year are as follows:

	£000
1997–98
New Deal	4,621
National Traineeships	800
Modern Apprenticeships	650
Small Business Consultation	521
National Training Awards	391
1998–99
New Deal	4,772
Reading and Literacy	3,648
Disability Discrimination	1,924
National Traineeships	1,502
Learning Direct	619

	£000	Start date	End date
1999–2000
Disability Discrimination	2,643	April	March
Maths Year 2000	2,322	January	March
Age Diversity	1,128	February	March
National Traineeships	1,077	April	March
One	873	June	February
2000–01
Don't Quit Now	2,700	July	October
New Deal 50 plus	2,400	September	March
ICT Employability	2,011	February	March
Childcare Recruitment	1,821	June	February
Disability Discrimination	1,242	October	March
2001–02(15)
Adult Basic Skills "Get On"	4,680	September	March
Childcare Recruitment	2,504	July	October
Science Year 2001–02	1,843	October	March
Modern Apprenticeships	1,780	April	March
Excellence Challenge	1,750	February	December

⁽¹⁵⁾ To date

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