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Written Answers to Questions
Tuesday 11 November 2003
TRANSPORT
Air Transport (Lost Luggage)
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions he has had with (a) BA and (b) other carriers operating from UK airports concerning lost and misrouted luggage; and if he will make a statement. [137852]
Mr. McNulty: The Government have not been involved in any recent discussions with airlines regarding lost or misrouted luggage. However, all the major full service UK airlines have signed up to the European Voluntary Commitments on Air Passenger Rights, which were launched in February 2002. These contain non-legally binding commitments to deliver defined standards of service to air travellers.
Signatory airlines agree to make every reasonable effort to deliver mishandled bags to the passenger within 24 hours of their arrival at the final destination, free of charge. In addition, airlines undertake to offer immediate assistance sufficient to meet the reasonable short-term needs of passengers faced with missing baggage.
Where luggage has been lost, the 1929 Warsaw Convention places a general liability on the airline, although this liability is limited in respect of compensatory rights. The 1999 Montreal Convention will update the maximum level of damages payable for lost or damaged baggage to approximately £850 per passenger.
Bechtel
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the contracts for consultancy and other work carried out by Bechtel in each year since 1997 by his Department's predecessors in areas relating to transport, stating in each case (a) the nature of the work, (b) the value of the contract and (c) the duration of the contract; and if he will make a statement. [137737]
Mr. McNulty: Neither the Department for Transport nor its predecessors has awarded any contracts to Bechtel since 1997 in areas relating to Transport.
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London Underground
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the sharing of windfall profits was the subject of negotiations with the infrastructure companies in the London Underground Public Private Partnership contracts; whether provision is made for windfall profits in the contracts; and if he will make a statement. [137521]
Mr. McNulty: Windfall profits were considered in the negotiations between London Underground and the PPP consortia.
The contracts provide the infrastructure companies reasonable certainty that they will receive a level of payment sufficient to earn an agreed rate of return if they are economic and efficient in delivering the services. The periodic reviews, every 7½ years, by the independent PPP Arbiter will, among other things, aim to enable the infrastructure companies to earn an agreed rate of return for the next period, while providing efficient and economic delivery of their services and take account of the rate of return earned in previous period.
The contracts specify that in the event of the infrastructure company re-financing its debt, London Underground Ltd. would receive a share of any benefit.
Performance Monitoring
Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the total cost was of (a) setting, (b) monitoring and (c) measuring the performance targets for his Department in 2002–03; and how many and what grades of civil servants monitor these targets. [137958]
Mr. McNulty: Performance targets for the department were agreed as part of Spending Review 2002. The monitoring and measurement of PSA targets forms part of departmental performance management. Performance management is an integral part of the day to day running of the department, and as such it is not possible to separate out the specific costs. The monitoring of progress towards, and performance against, the department's PSA targets is undertaken by a wide variety of staff at all levels of the organisation.
Railway Violence
Mr. Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many incidents of violence on railway trains have been reported to British Transport Police in the last three years for which figures are available, broken down by operating company. [137190]
Mr. McNulty: The British Transport Police (BTP) does not record crime statistics broken down by train operating company. However, the BTP have provided information regarding incidents of violence on trains for the last four years. Table 1 shows the total number of offences reported in England and Wales and Table 2 shows the total number of offences reported in Scotland.
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| 2000–01 | 2001–02 | 2002–03 | April 2003to October 2003 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Bodily Harm | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Disorder and Affray | 3 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| Assaults on Police | 3 | 6 | 5 | 2 |
| Assaults and Violent Incidents | 316 | 295 | 315 | 129 |
| Murder and Attempted Murder | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Breach of the Peace | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Common Assault | 25 | 0 | 33 | 13 |
| Domestic Disputes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Firearms and Offensive weapons | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Grievous Bodily Harm | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sexual Assaults including Rape | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Racial/Homophobic Incidents | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery/Attempted Robbery | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Threatening Behaviour and Violent Disorder | 0 | 0 | 3 | 53 |
| Verbal Abuse | 3 | 0 | 23 | 4 |
| Public Order Offences | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Manslaughter | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 355 | 307 | 393 | 204 |
TREASURY
Tax Credits
Mr. Woodward: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in (a) the North West region, (b) Merseyside and (c) St. Helens South are in receipt of the working tax credit. [137986]
Dawn Primarolo: The information for the North West region appears in the July and October 2003 issues of "Child and Working Tax Credit Quarterly Statistics".
Information on the number of families in Merseyside and St. Helens South receiving the child and working tax credits at July 2003 appears in "Child and Working Tax Credit Statistics. Geographical analyses".
These publications can be found on the Inland Revenue website, at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/menu.htm.
Building Repairs (VAT)
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will reply to the letter dated
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3 October from the Member for Banff and Buchan to the hon. Member for Wentworth, regarding VAT on building repairs. [137583]
Carrier Bags
Janet Anderson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the merits of introducing a tax on carrier bags supplied by supermarkets. [137093]
John Healey: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Lynne Jones) on 22 October 2002 Official Report, column 213W.
Census 2001
Mr. Gordon Marsden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what action his Department will take in response to the recent report by the Statistics Commission on the accuracy of the 2001 census for the Westminster city council area; [136989]
- (2) if he will ask the Statistics Commission to investigate the accuracy of the 2001 census in Blackpool; [136990]
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(3) what assessment his Department has made of the implications for the reliability of the census population statistics for Blackpool of the recent Statistics Commission report on the accuracy of the 2001 census for Westminster. [136991]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Gordon Marsden, dated 11 November 2003:
- As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales I have been asked to reply to your recent questions asking: what action will be taken in response to the recent report by the Statistics Commission on the accuracy of the 2001 census for the Westminster City Council area (136989), whether the Statistics Commission will be asked to investigate the accuracy of the 2001 census count in Blackpool (136990) and what assessment has been made of the implications for the reliability of the census population statistics for Blackpool of the recent Statistics Commission report on the accuracy of the 2001 census for Westminster. (136991)
- It is for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to take forward the recommendations from the report by the Statistics Commission on the accuracy of the 2002 census for Westminster. ONS has welcomed this report and is considering what action is required. The Statistics Commission has made several recommendations about how ONS should proceed with Westminster, and recognised that this work was already underway. A report on the Westminster and Manchester exercise is planned for Spring 2004.
- The Statistics Commission report on the Census in Westminster concluded that no alternative approach would have produced more reliable results overall and that it seems likely that the 2001 Census was significantly better than any of its recent predecessors. The Statistics Commission's report does make a number of recommendations for further work that should be carried out by ONS but the Commission made no proposals about which ONS had not already published our intention to act or to carry out further research.
- Although I recognise that there was a relatively large fall in the 2001 Census-based population estimate for Blackpool compared to previous estimates, I am not aware of any particular cause for concern about the latest published population estimates for Blackpool. If you have some work that challenges this judgement, I would most certainly respond to it.
- The Statistics Commission is an independent body and it is not my role to attempt to influence their work programme.
- On 4 November, I published a revised population estimate for Manchester that took account of the results of the address matching exercise. This was accompanied by a document outlining the process that ONS intend to adopt to periodically validate the annual population estimates of local authorities. I will arrange for this document to be sent to you, along with two recent ONS reports (on population statistics and our approach to the next Census) that you may find of value.
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