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TRANSPORT

Trackside Debris

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what action he has taken in respect of reports of sleepers and other debris being left by contractors beside the main east coast railway line in Arlesey, Bedfordshire; and if he will make a statement; [58329]

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(2) if he will raise with the Chief Executive of Railtrack at a meeting in the near future the issue of contractors' debris beside railway lines; and if he will make a statement; [58327]

(3) what information he has received from the Chief Executive of Railtrack about an initiative designed to ensure contractors clear debris from areas surrounding railway tracks whilst work is in progress; and if he will make a statement. [58328]

Mr. Jamieson [holding answer 21 May 2002]: I understand that Railtrack have in hand a national programme to ensure that the lineside is clear from surplus engineering material by October 2002; and that systems are in place by the following month to prevent future build-up of such material.

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Home Zones

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which local authorities included proposals for home zones in their annual progress reports 2001 finance forms; how many were proposed in each case; what the total length of these roads is; and if he will make a statement. [66002]

Mr. Jamieson: The table shows the information provided within the local transport plan Annual Progress Reports submitted in August 2001 of those English authorities outside London which included proposals for the designation of areas as home zones. Length of road within each proposal is not recorded centrally.

Authority	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06
Bath and North East Somerset	2	3	3	3	3
Birmingham	0	2	2	1	2
Blackburn	1	1	1	1	1
Blackpool	0	1	0	0	1
Bolton	0	0	1	1	1
Bournemouth	2	2	2	2	2
Brighton	0	0	1	1	1
Bristol	1	1	1	1	1
Darlington	0	0	1	1	1
Derby	0	0	1	2	3
Devon	1	4	5	3	4
Dorset	0	0	1	1	1
Durham	30	30	30	30	30
Gateshead	0	1	0	0	0
Gloucestershire	0	0	0	0	1
Hampshire	1	1	1	1	1
Hull	0	1	2	2	2
Isle of Wight	1	2	2	2	2
Kent	0	1	1	1	1
Knowsley	0	1	1	1	1
Leeds	1	0	1	1	1
Leicestershire	3	3	3	3	3
Lincolnshire	0	1	2	1	1
Liverpool	1	2	2	3	3
Luton	1	1	1	1	1
Manchester	1	4	4	4	5
Medway	0	0	1	1	1
North Lincolnshire	0	1	1	1	1
North Tyneside	1	1	1	1	1
Newcastle	0	0	1	1	1
Northumberland	0	2	1	1	1
Nottingham	2	2	2	2	2
Nottinghamshire	2	0	3	4	4
Oldham	2	1	1	1	1
Oxfordshire	1	1	1	1	1
Peterborough	1	0	0	0	0
Plymouth	0	1	0	0	0
Poole	0	0	0	0	1
Portsmouth	1	1	1	1	1
Rutland	1	1	1	1	1
South Tyneside	0	1	1	1	2
Salford	0	0	1	1	1
Sefton	0	1	1	1	1
Sheffield	1	0	0	0	0
Shropshire	2	2	2	2	2
Solihull	0	0	2	3	4
St Helens	1	1	1	0	1
Stockport	3	3	3	3	3
Stoke on Trent	0	0	1	0	1
Suffolk	0	1	2	1	1
Surrey	1	3	5	5	5
Telford and Wrekin	0	0	1	1	1
Thurrock	0	1	1	2	2
Trafford	0	0	1	1	1
West Sussex	0	0	0	0	1
Warrington	0	0	1	1	1
Warwickshire	1	2	3	4	5
Windsor and Maidenheaad	1	0	0	0	0
Wolverhampton	1	2	2	3	3
York	1	3	3	3	3

Source:

LTP Annual Progress Report 2001

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10-Year Plan

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he plans to publish revisions to the 10 year plan for transport. [66061]

Mr. Jamieson: I refer the hon. Member to the Secretary of State for Transport' oral answer to the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) on Tuesday 2 July 2002, Official Report, columns 77–78.

Train Punctuality

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many trains of each train operating company arrived late by (a) more than five minutes and (b) more than 10 minutes in each month from November 2001 to June 2002; and how many trains in each train operating company were cancelled in each month from November 2001 to June 2002. [66673]

Mr. Jamieson: I refer the hon. Member to the Strategic Rail Authority Publication 'On Track' which contains the rail performance information he seeks. The document is published every six months, the last one on 6 June and was placed in the Libraries of the House.

Funding Guarantees

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what funding guarantees have been given to the SRA by his Department. [66496]

Mr. Jamieson [holding answer 2 July 2002]: I refer the hon. Member to the statement about Network Rail made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport on 27 June 2002 Official Report, columns 971–973.

Halcrow

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what strategic transport reports he intends to commission from Halcrow; and what fees they will be paid. [66756]

Mr. Jamieson: The Department may wish to engage consultants for a wide variety of purposes, including policy development (and implementation), administration, research and development, and the provision of specialist services. I would not want to prejudge who are appointed to undertake such work.

York-Penzance Rail Service

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the (a) reliability and (b) punctuality of rail services between York and Penzance. [67212]

Mr. Jamieson: Performance figures for each of the train operating companies are published by the Strategic Rail Authority in their quarterly publication "National Rail Trends", and in more detail in their six monthly

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publication "On Track". Copies of these publications are placed in the library of the House. The most recent editions of both documents were published on 6 June.

Modes of Transport Statistics

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) car, (b) bus and (c) rail journeys were made in the last 12 months. [67213]

Mr. Jamieson: Data from the National Travel Survey on main mode of trip show that, over the period 1998–2000, residents in Great Britain made on average:

(a) 640 car trips per person per year (411 as a driver and 228 as a passenger)

(b) 58 local bus trips per person per year and

(c) 19 rail trips per person per year (12 by surface rail and 7 by LT Underground).

Data are not available for single years.

Seat Belts

Mr. Steinberg: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer of 1 July 2002, ref 65787, on seat belts, what plans he has to ensure they are used by pupils. [67225]

Mr. Jamieson: The law does not require passengers to wear seat belts in the rear seats of coaches but advice in the Highway Code is that they should be worn where available. Unlike the case of drivers of cars, goods vehicles and the smaller minibuses, it would be unreasonable and potentially unsafe for drivers of these larger vehicles also to be responsible for seat belt wearing by passengers under 14 years.

Oral Questions

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many oral questions he has transferred to other Departments in each of the last 18 months. [67050]

Mr. Jamieson: Since the Department for Transport was formed on 29 May 2002, no oral questions have been transferred to other Departments.

Five oral questions were transferred by the former Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, as follows:

Month	Number of oral questions transferred
June 2001	1
December 2001	1
January 2002	1
March 2002	2

Questions are only transferred when it is more appropriate for another Department to answer, and they accept the question.

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National Air Traffic Services

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer of 25 June to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael), Official Report, column 768W, on national air traffic services, what actions with regard to software and equipment have been taken to prevent a recurrence of the problems experienced on 27 March, 10 April and 17 May. [67174]

Mr. Jamieson [holding answer 5 July 2002]: Details of the actions taken in response to earlier software and equipment problems at West Drayton and Swanwick are operational matters for NATS.

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