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28 Mar 2003 : Column 416W—continued

Special Advisers

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many special advisers in the Department (a) have left and (b) will be leaving to work in Scotland for the Labour Party in the forthcoming Scottish parliamentary elections. [103601]

Mr. Jamieson: The rules relating to special advisers' political activities are set out in the Model Contract for Special Advisers. Further guidance in respect of elections for the Scottish Parliament is set out at paragraph 13 of the Guidance on Conduct for Civil Servants in UK Departments, published by the Cabinet Office on 10 March.

The reasons for a special adviser's resignation are a private matter between the department and adviser, and are therefore exempt from disclosure under paragraph 12 of the Code of Practice on Access to Information.

TPWS System

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his estimate is of the reduction of incidents of signals passed at red as a result of the introduction of TPWS. [104993]

Mr. Jamieson: The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) monthly reports of signals passed at danger (SPADs) record the number of occasions each month that the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) is successfully activated. This is broken down between 'interventions' where TPWS initiates braking before any action is taken by the driver and 'activations' where the driver has already started breaking for the signal but the train is travelling too fast at the over-speed sensor or has passed the stop located at the signal at red. There will also be cases where TPWS intervenes to stop the train passing a signal at red but these will not be recorded as part of the monthly SPAD reports. Copies of the HSE reports are in the Library.

In the last 18 months there has been a 70 per cent. decrease in the most serious SPADs, although not all of this improvement is attributable to TPWS.

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many incidents of signals passed at red have occurred as a result of drivers cancelling the TPWS system since installation. [104995]

Mr. Jamieson: None, as it is not possible for the driver to switch off the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS).

Vehicle Excise Duty

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the cost of collecting vehicle excise duty in the latest year for which information is available. [104760]

Mr. Jamieson: The cost of collecting vehicle excise duty for 2001–02 was £110.5 million. This includes the cost of enforcement activities.

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Vehicle Fleet

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what targets he has set for his Department and agencies to change to a vehicle fleet that is powered by alternative fuels; [103300]

Mr. Jamieson: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is responsible within the Government for sustainable development policy, including 'Greening Government' issues.

In July last year DEFRA launched the "Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate" which set targets to be achieved by 2006 for environmental performance including:


requiring at least 10 per cent. of all fleet cars to be alternatively fuelled.

To assist transport managers in Government Departments and Agencies to implement environmentally friendly transport strategies, my Department has produced "Driving towards a better environment—a guide to choosing and using cleaner vehicles", including comprehensive information on cleaner vehicles such as LPG, battery electric and hybrid vehicles. (No fuel cell vehicles are currently available on the market.) Advice and help is also available through my Department's 'TransportEnergy' Best Practice Programme.

In my own Department and its Agencies, we are already over half-way towards the 2006 target for alternatively fuelled cars set last year.

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The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Mobility Advice and Vehicle Information Service and Vehicle Inspectorate (VI) use a total of 58 LPG vehicles representing 5.5 per cent. of the total fleet. However, the scope for further alternatively fuelled vehicles is limited by the emergency and specialist nature of their use. For example Highway Agency's vehicles are mainly motorway and winter maintenance vehicles including snowploughs or gritters and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's vehicles are used for emergency services and carry search and rescue equipment. LPG vehicles in the DVLA and VI fleets are badged to indicate that they are run on this cleaner fuel.

The Department has four ministerial cars leased from the Government Car and Despatch Agency, one of which uses LPG.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Employers Liability Insurance

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action she proposes to take to protect manufacturing industry from excessive increases in employers' liability insurance. [105654]

Nigel Griffiths: The Government are very concerned by reports of significant rises in insurance premiums, and is undertaking a review, led by the Department for Work and Pensions(DWP), to assess the scale and nature of difficulties with the Employers Liability Insurance system. A wide range of key stakeholders and interested parties including representatives from the manufacturing sector has been engaged in the process. Further details of the review are available at wwwxlwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2002/health-safety/eli-review/index

We are taking action to help manufactures facing difficult conditions in the global slowdown through the Manufacturing Strategy, which has been developed in partnership with industry. Further details on the Manufacturing Strategy can be found at the DTI website, www.dti.gov.uk/manufacturing/index.htm.dti

Employment Law (Over-65s)

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will amend employment legislation to provide statutory protections in respect of (a) redundancy and (b) unfair dismissal for employees over 65 years of age. [101881]

Alan Johnson: We intend to review upper age limits on statutory redundancy payments and general unfair dismissal claims in the light of responses to the next public consultation on age discrimination, due to be launched this summer.

European State Aid Rules

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions she has had within the European Commission about compliance with European state aid rules in relation to payments made to (a) LG Electronics and (b) LG Semiconductors for their operations in Newport, South Wales. [105611]

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Alan Johnson: The Department, working closely with the Welsh Assembly Government, is in on-going contact with the European Commission on various aspects of these projects.

Manufacturing (East Yorkshire)

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people were employed in the manufacturing sector in the East Riding of Yorkshire in each year since 1997. [105195]

Alan Johnson: The Annual Business Inquiry (employee analysis) gives the following information on the number of people employed within the manufacturing sector in the East Riding of Yorkshire:

YearNumber of employees
199822,434
199921,181
200020,536
200118,314

Source:

ONS, Annual Business Inquiry

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Comparable data for previous years, including 1997, are not available and information from the 2002 Annual Business Inquiry is not yet available.

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