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Written Answers to Questions

Thursday 16 October 2003

WALES

Welsh European Funding Office

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) when he was informed of the decision of the Welsh Assembly Government to disband the Welsh European Funding Office; [129211]

(2) what discussions he had held with Welsh Assembly Government colleagues prior to the disbanding of the Welsh European Funding Office; and if he will give the exact dates; [129212]

(3) what discussions he had with the Welsh Assembly Government with regard to the disbanding of the Welsh European Funding Office. [129213]

Mr. Hain: I have regular discussions with the First Minister on a variety of issues, including structural funds. However, The Assembly is responsible for the administration of European structural funds in Wales and it is entirely for the Assembly to determine how these funds are implemented.

TRANSPORT

Aviation

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what consultation his Department has held with the UK aviation industry about the transfer of legislative powers to negotiate with the USA from the UK to the European Commission. [132559]

Mr. McNulty: The granting of a mandate for the European Commission to negotiate a liberalised transatlantic open aviation area with the US was an integral part of a balanced package of measures on the conduct of aviation external relations agreed in the light of the European Court of Justice's decision in November 2002 in the "Open Skies" cases. The details of a possible mandate for the Commission to open aviation negotiations with the United States were under frequent discussion in Council and its Working Groups for several years, beginning with the so-called "soft rights" mandate agreed by Council in June 1996. Throughout this period the Department was in regular dialogue, both at Ministerial and official level, with all interested parties on our aviation relations with the US, including the prospects for comprehensive Community-level negotiations.

Bus Services

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will instigate a monitoring system for

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bus operators in receipt of local government subsidies to ensure proper compliance with quality bus partnership standards. [132561]

Mr. McNulty: Quality bus partnerships are normally agreements which require investment by operators in better vehicles or other means of improving services, so would apply to profitable services that are operated without subsidy. Where operators of subsidised services are able to use the facilities provided by local authorities under quality partnership schemes, it is open to the local authority to specify the required standards in the contract and enforce compliance with the operator's contractual obligations.

In the case of a statutory quality partnership under the Transport Act 2000, Traffic Commissioners have the power to impose financial penalties on operators who fail to comply with undertakings they have made under the partnership scheme, or place conditions on their licences.

Transport Subsidies

Mr. Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the average public subsidy per mile travelled for (a) bus routes and (b) light rail and tram systems was in the last year for which figures are available. [131926]

Mr. McNulty: For local buses in England, the average public subsidy per vehicle mile averaged £1.32 in 2001–02.

Modern light rail and tram systems in England receive no public operating subsidy but the older Blackpool Corporation Tramway is supported. On the same mileage basis, the tramway received public subsidy of £1.31 per vehicle mile.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Credit Companies

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps the Government is taking (a) to monitor the extent to which credit companies offer high interest loans and (b) to regulate the practice. [131747]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is as follows:

(a) There are currently in excess of 200,000 businesses licensed under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and monitoring the activities of all these businesses would create a significant burden on legitimate business.

(b) The Consumer Credit Act 1974 contains provisions that allow a consumer to challenge an extortionate credit bargain. However, only about 30 extortionate credit cases are known to have reached the courts since the Act came into force and of those, in only 10 did the court find the agreement to be extortionate.

I believe that these provisions have not operated effectively in enabling consumers to challenge unfair credit agreements and I intend to publish a White Paper this autumn, which will contain details of how I intend to make it easier for consumers to challenge unfair credit transactions.

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Botswana

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many applications for export credit guarantees were received by her Department in each year since 1997 with regard to Botswana; how many were successful; and if she will make a statement. [131626]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: ECGD has received the following inquiries relating to applications for export credit guarantees with regards to Botswana:

Year	Number of Inquiries
1997	2
1998	2
1999	0
2000	4
2001	1
2002	0
2003	1

None of these have led to the issue of an ECGD guarantee.

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Broadband

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much Government funding has been allocated for broadband rollout in each year since 2000, broken down by English region. [131845]

Mr. Timms: Government funding for broadband to each English region falls under three main areas:

(a) £30 million UK Broadband Fund:

£ million

Region	Total	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04
East Midlands	2.090	—	0.315	0.800	0.975
Yorks and Humber	3.100	—	0.465	1.300	1.335
South East	2.900	—	0.025	1.975	0.900
West Midlands	2.082	—	0.312	0.910	0.860
East England	3.220	—	0.483	1.200	1.537
North East	1.460	—	0.220	0.615	0.625
South West	3.780	—	0.567	1.600	1.613
North West	2.679	—	0.210	0.299	2.170
London	0.113	—	0.019	0.045	0.049
Total	21.424	0	2.616	8.744	10.064

(b) RDA Single Pot funding

The latest available figures indicate that each RDA has allocated the following amounts to a range of broadband projects from their single pot budgets:

£ million

Region	Total	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004/05/06
East Midlands	0.560			0.200	0.360
Yorks and Humber	2.132		0.296	0.478	0.658	0.700
South East	6.300			1.300	5.000
West Midlands	21.149			1.145	8.252	11.752
East England	12.530			4.300	3.350	4.880
North East	48.165	2.000	2.780	3.385	40.000
South West	0.370				0.370
North West	142.777			1.777	141.000
London	1.700				1.700
Total	235.683	2.000	3.076	12.585	218.022

(c) Public Sector Aggregation

The Government intend to spend £1 billion on broadband connectivity for its own needs over the next three years. The Broadband Aggregation Project will set up nine Regional Aggregation Bodies (RABs), which will be publicly owned companies and which will aggregate and procure public sector demand for broadband. In so doing they will obtain better prices through bulk buying, and thus better value for money, and also encourage broadband service providers to invest in creating more broadband infrastructure which they can use to provide a service to the public. Figures on the breakdown by region of this funding are not available.

Coal-fired Power Stations

Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions she has had with (a) the UK mined coal industry and (b) trades unions about the likely impact of the Large Combustion Plants Directive implementation options proposed in the current consultation. [132408]

Mr. Timms: This issue has been among the topics I have discussed in recent meetings with the Coal Authority and UK Coal Ltd. These and other bodies and organisations with an interest in UK coal mining have also responded formally to the Government's recent consultation paper on implementation. The Government will take a decision on the most appropriate approach after considering the responses to the consultation.

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