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Public Transport (Recruitment and Retention)

Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on the impact of rates of pay on recruitment and retention of public transport workers and the delivery of the Government's transport objectives in London. [55793]

Mr. Jamieson: Recruitment and retention of public transport workers and their pay rates are the responsibility of the relevant transport operators. It is for them to manage their services to deliver the various performance targets set by the transport authorities within the context of the Government's policies. Measures to improve performance are taken as necessary.

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Road Safety

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what statistics are collected by his Department on road safety; and if he will make a statement. [55853]

Mr. Jamieson: Personal injury road accident data in Great Britain are collected by the police and reported to the Department using the STATS19 accident report format. A full description of the data collected and an extensive selection of statistics are published in detail in "Road Accidents Great Britain—The Casualty Report". The report for 2000 was published on 20 September 2001 and a copy placed in the Libraries of the House.

Free Travel

Ms Atherton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions which local authorities provide free travel on public transport for old age pensioners and the disabled. [55701]

Ms Keeble: There are six areas where free travel is provided for pensioners: London boroughs, Merseyside, West Midlands, Crawley, Reading and Redditch.

There are eight areas where free travel is provided for disabled people: London boroughs, Merseyside, Congleton, Crawley, Reading Redditch, Rutland and Warwick. In addition, there are a further 89 areas where free travel is provided for blind people.

Mr. Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what recent assessment he has made of the level of access of pensioners to free bus transport. [55848]

Ms Keeble: From June 2001 the Transport Act 2000 provides a standard minimum requirement for concessionary travel in England and Wales. This ensures half fares for pensioners and disabled people on local buses, with no charge for the pass. Local authorities may make more generous provision at their discretion.

Following the introduction of the standard minimum requirement a survey taken last autumn shows that over half of authorities had a more generous scheme than previously and 17 authorities had introduced a concessionary fares scheme when none previously existed. Six areas provide free travel for pensioners.

Road Improvements

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what extra funding will be made available to county councils for road improvement in the next financial year. [55195]

Mr. Jamieson: The Government are providing over £30 billion for local road maintenance over the next 10 years, an extra 9 billion (23 per cent. in real terms) above the funding levels in the previous 10 years. The exact figures for 2003–04 will be announced in December this year.

Parking

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what restrictions are in place in respect of the spending of

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moneys by local authorities in respect of revenue raised by them from parking meters and paid parking schemes; what the basis is for such restrictions; and if he will make a statement. [55798]

Mr. Spellar: Section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 requires local authorities to keep an account of income and expenditure in respect of designated on-street parking places. This section restricts expenditure of surplus on-street parking income to making good any charges against an authority's general fund, provision and maintenance of off-street parking, highway improvements and public transport schemes. There are no restrictions on the use of surplus income from authorities' off-street parking facilities.

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what powers he has to prevent local authorities in England and Wales from issuing a greater number of residents parking permits than the number of residents parking places that have been made available by such local authority. [55796]

Mr. Spellar: Local traffic authorities have powers to introduce traffic management schemes on their roads, including residents' parking schemes, by means of traffic regulation orders (TRO) made under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. The Secretary of State has a reserve power under the provisions of Part 1 of Schedule 9 to the 1984 Act to intervene in the making of a TRO in a case where he believes that an authority is not satisfactorily discharging its duty under section 122 of the Act to secure the expeditious, convenient and save movement of vehicular and other traffic and the provision of suitable and adequate parking facilities on and off the highway.

The purpose of a residents' parking scheme is to ensure residents have preferential access to on-street parking in their area over others, such as those commuting into the area. Given the limited supply of kerbside parking space and possible multiple care ownership in individual households, an authority has to judge the balance between supply of spaces and the number of permits issued in drawing up a scheme. In practice a residents' parking scheme may not necessarily guarantee permit holders access to a parking space, but could be better than having an uncontrolled parking free for all.

London Underground

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the rate of return will be on each of the three PPP contracts. [56211]

Mr. Jamieson: The payments the private sector infrastructure companies receive from London Underground will depend on the performance they actually deliver. There is no guaranteed rate of return for shareholders under the three Public Private Partnership contracts.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to his reply of 2 May 2002, Official Report, column 900W, on London Underground, if the appropriate regulatory clearances relating to (a) the procurement process, (b) the competition aspects and (c) the state aid aspects have been obtained; and if he will make a statement. [56207]

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Mr. Jamieson: All appropriate regulatory clearances will be obtained before any PPP contracts take effect.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the projected efficiency savings are in each of the first seven years of the PPP contracts for each of the consortia. [56213]

Mr. Jamieson: I refer the hon. Member to the final assessment report produced by London Underground. This report, which is available on London Underground's website, contains an assessment of the underlying costs of the bids for the tube modernisation contracts compared to the underlying costs of the relevant public sector comparators over the first seven and a half years of the contracts. A year-on-year analysis is not available.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assumptions were made during PPP negotiations about the level of fare increases on London Underground in each of the first seven years. [56209]

Mr. Jamieson: London Underground fares are a matter for the Mayor. London Transport has for planning purposes assumed that fares would rise in line with inflation.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how much London Transport has spent on consultancy costs for the London Underground PPP. [56210]

Mr. Jamieson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Mr. Borrow) on 4 December 2001, Official Report, column 296W.

Since 30 September 2001 a further 9 million has been spent.

Community Transport (Fuel Duty Rebate)

Judy Mallaber: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when regulations will be made implementing the Government's commitment to extend eligibility for fuel duty rebate to a wide range of community transport services. [57134]

Ms Keeble: I am pleased to confirm that the Bus Service Operators Grant (England) Regulations 2002, implementing this proposal, were laid before Parliament on 10 April and came into force on 1 May 2002.

PPP Contracts

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what payment each of the three consortia will receive in each year of the first seven years of the PPP contracts. [56208]

Mr. Jamieson: I refer the hon. Member to the proposed comfort letter that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State reported to Parliament on Wednesday 20 March 2002. The actual level of payments received by the consortia will depend on the level of performance they deliver.

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