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Fishing

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer to the hon. Member for Lewes of 1 May 2003, Official Report, column 461W, on the Darwin Mounds, when the consultation on the legislation to apply the Habitats Directive to offshore areas will begin. [121648]

Mr. Bradshaw: Preparations are under way for a full public consultation to begin in July, with a view to regulations being laid before Parliament during the autumn.

Rural Payments Agency

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the capacity of the Rural Payments Agency to meet the deadline for payments of 30 June; and what steps she is taking to ensure that the deadline is met. [122571]

Alun Michael: Balance payments on all the bovine subsidy schemes have been delayed due to the need to implement changes in EU legislation introduced for the 2002 scheme year. These changes introduced new penalty procedures that apply when either the scheme rules or cattle identification requirements have been breached. Before making balance payments the Rural Payments Agency has had to build a new computer database and significantly enhance existing computer systems to cope with the changes. These are complex changes and have taken considerable time to implement. As a result, not all producers will be paid before the 30 June deadline.

Staff at the RPA continue to work overtime at offices around the country to process as many payments as possible.

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Although the regulations require payments to be made by 30 June, in order to complete the process, the UK and several other member states have made representations to the European Commission for an extension to the EC deadline, due to the introduction of Aggregated penalties.

Senior Departmental Posts

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many senior departmental posts were advertised in each year since June 1999; and how many of these were advertised in the Scottish press. [120663]

Alun Michael: The information is as follows:

(a) Since the formation of Defra the following senior departmental posts were advertised in each year as follows:

	Number
From April 2003	1
April 2002 to April 2003	8
April 2001 to April 2002	7

It would incur disproportionate cost to obtain this information prior to the formation of Defra.

(b) No senior departmental posts were advertised separately in the Scottish press.

Veterinary Surgeons

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the number of veterinary surgeons who will be required over each of the next five years. [119228]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 16 June 2003]: No such estimate has been made, but in 2001 the Institute for Employment Studies carried out a modelling exercise for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS). This indicated that the requirement for veterinary surgeons in the UK over the next ten years was very sensitive to a number of variables. On several possible scenarios fewer new graduates would be needed each year than now.

The RCVS has recently asked IES to update the model and the results of this review are expected within the next few months.

Discussions between Defra and stakeholders in developing the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain have stressed the important role private veterinarians will have in delivering the Strategy.

LEADER OF THE COUNCIL

Official Engagements

Llew Smith: To ask the Leader of the Council if he will make a statement on how he plans to balance his official engagements in the House of Commons with his requirements to be in Wales as Secretary of State for Wales. [120809]

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Peter Hain: I intend to spend as much time as is necessary to fulfil both my responsibilities as Leader of the House of Commons and as Secretary of State for Wales.

TRANSPORT

Air Traffic Control

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if he will make a statement on air traffic control delays at (a) London Heathrow airport, (b) Gatwick airport, (c) Manchester airport, (d) London Stansted airport, (e) Luton airport and (f) Leeds-Bradford airport;

(2) if he will make a statement on air traffic control delays at Heathrow airport;

(3) how many air traffic control delays to individual aircraft of over (a) 10 minutes, (b) 20 minutes and (c) 30 minutes there have been at Heathrow airport in the last two years. [122620]

Mr. McNulty: Airport air traffic control services are provided either by the airport operator or by private sector companies under contract to the airport operator. I would expect questions on performance to be directed to the management of the airport or service provider concerned, or their regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority.

Aviation

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what average fare per return journey at 2000 prices is used for each of the examples shown in Table 14.5 of "The Future of Air Transport in the United Kingdom: South East", for (a) 2000 and (b) 2003. [122497]

Mr. McNulty: The average fare per return journey at 2000 prices implicit in each of the examples shown in Table 14.5 of "The Future of Air Transport in the United Kingdom: South East" is the sum of the fare premia for 2030 given in that table, plus an underlying fare in the absence of airport capacity constraints of £258 in 2030. The underlying fare in the year 2030 is calculated by taking a 1 per cent. per annum reduction in real terms over 20 years from a fare in the year 2000 of £312. The latter figure is derived from the International Passenger Survey, taking account of long haul and short haul flights.

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he will include for approval in the forthcoming White Paper on aviation any proposal which was not presented by his Department for public consultation under SERAS. [122896]

Mr. McNulty: As my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Transport, has made clear on many occasions, we will consider carefully all serious worked-up proposals submitted as responses to the consultation.

If Government were minded to favour in the proposed air transport White Paper any option or options which had not been presented in the "The Future Development of Air

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Transport in the United Kingdom" consultation, there would need to be a further period of consultation on that option or options.

Chancery Lane Derailment

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what conclusion he has reached as to the cause of the Chancery Lane derailment; and if he will make a statement. [121885]

Mr. McNulty: It is hoped that London Underground's final report into the incident will be completed in July and they are committed to making the findings of the report public.

Freight Grants

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to his answer of 20 June 2003, Official Report, column 446W, on freight grants, what grants to which he refers are made by the Scottish Executive; and what proportion relates to movement within Scotland in each year since 1996 (a) at current prices and (b) at outturn prices. [122751]

Mr. McNulty: None of the grants referred to was made by the Scottish Executive.

The following number of cross border Track Access Grants (TAG) was made by my Department or the Strategic Rail Authority in each year.

	Number of TAG awards with Scottish element
1994	0
1995	0
1996	2
1997	1
1998	3
1999	3
2000	0
2001	2
2002	2

Kirkstall Bridge Station

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what requests for funding he has received for the construction of Kirkstall Bridge railway station. [122672]

Mr. McNulty: No such requests have been received.

Mail Transportation

Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make an environmental impact assessment of Royal Mail's decision to stop transporting its freight by rail. [122788]

Mr. McNulty: No. The decision is a matter for Royal Mail.

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Mersey Tunnels Bill

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on (a) the duration of individual meetings and (b) the total duration of meetings he has held with the Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority and Executive to discuss the Mersey Tunnels Bill in the last five years. [122700]

Dr. Howells: The requested information is not available, as it is not normal departmental practice to record the duration of such meetings.

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what meetings his Department has had with hon. Members to discuss the Mersey Tunnels Bill. [123156]

Mr. McNulty: There have been two meetings with hon. Members to discuss the Mersey Tunnels Bill. These were on:

(a) 17 December 2001 with the hon. Member and the hon. Members for Wirral West (Stephen Hesford) and Ellesmere Port and Neston (Mr. Miller); and


(b) 16 July 2002 with the hon. Members for Crosby (Mrs. Curtis-Thomas), Knowsley North and Sefton East (Mr. George Howarth) and Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Kilfoyle).

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