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Strategic Rail Authority
James Purnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the Strategic Rail Authority will announce the preferred bidder for the Trans-Pennine Express franchise. [69435]
Mr. Jamieson: The Strategic Rail Authority has received Best and Final Offers from the three short-listed counterparties: Arriva, Connex, and the FirstGroup/Keolis consortium. The authority is evaluating those proposals and will make an announcement in due course.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the accounting subsidiaries of the SRA. [69945]
Mr. Jamieson: I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) on 2 July 2002, Official Report, column 214W.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on what date the SRA first made a payment to Network Rail as a legal entity. [69943]
Mr. Jamieson: No payments have been made so far by the SRA to Network Rail.
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the Maritime and Coastguard Agency will offer a contract for a satellite tracking system to monitor oil spills; and if the contract will include night-time flying. [69687]
Mr. Jamieson: The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has concluded a trial on the potential for the use of satellite tracking systems to monitor oil spills and is currently evaluating the results. The MCA is also liaising with the Department for Trade and Industry on the best way forward for future satellite surveillance for the detection of marine oil spills in UK waters.
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To improve detection of oil spills during hours of darkness, the MCA has recently ordered increased night-time flying of its contracted aerial surveillance aircraft.
Consultations
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many people (a) were invited to respond
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and (b) responded to his consultation on (i) joint consultation with DTI and DEFRA, (ii) road traffic and (iii) electromagnetic compatibility. [69459]
Mr. Jamieson: As well as the individually directed invitations to comment that are counted in the table, full consultation papers were available on the Department's website and supplied to enquirers on request.
| Consultation | (a) Organisations and interested parties consulted | (b) Responses |
|---|---|---|
| (i) Joint DTLR, DTI, DEFRA and Treasury consultation on the draft Powering Future Vehicles Strategy | 157 | 77 |
| (ii) Road traffic consultation concerning the draft Road Traffic (Authorisation of Special Types) (General) Order 2002 | 251 | 59 |
| (iii) Electromagnetic compatibility consultation | 274 | 107 |
Software
Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his policy is towards using open source software; and what percentage is used in his Department. [69306]
Mr. Jamieson: The Department for Transport sets out the specific business requirements that software is required to meet. Suppliers are free to propose open source software to meet these requirements.
The Department's use of open source software will follow the Government's policy when published, currently planned for summer 2002. The draft policy may be viewed at http:// www.govtalk.gov.uk/rfc/rfc_document.asp?docnum=429.
At present, less than 1 per cent. of departmental software is open source.
School Transport
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list (a) the allocation of funding and (b) the number of schemes under Safe Routes to Schools by LEA. [69486]
Mr. Jamieson: Aside from major local transport schemes (ie those with a gross cost exceeding £5 million) capital funding to local authorities for road maintenance and smaller scale integrated transport measures such as safe routes to school are provided in the form of a single block allocation. It is for the authorities to decide upon the use of such funds in line with the priorities and objectives established in their plans.
We therefore do not allocate funding for specific safe routes to school projects. However, the table shows the information provided within the local transport plan Annual Progress Reports submitted in August 2001 by those English authorities outside London who estimated the number of schools implementing their first safe route scheme, established wholly or partly using local transport plan capital funding.
Source:
LTP Annual Progress Reports 2001
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Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if she will make it a requirement that transport for schoolchildren and pre-school children should be fitted with seat belts. [69545]
Mr. Jamieson: All minibuses and coaches used specifically for school transport have since 1998 been required to be fitted with seat belts. This requirement would also apply to pre-school transport for children over three.
In addition, all new cars and buses (apart from buses designed for urban use and standing passengers) are now required to be fitted with seat belts.
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