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4 Feb 2004 : Column 907W—continued
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Correspondence
Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 15 December 2003 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. A. Faqi. [152642]
Mr. Mullin: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 3 February 2004, Official Report, column 838W.
Iran
Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress towards democracy in Iran. [151604]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: For elections in any country to be regarded as free and fair, electors should have a chance to vote for candidates with a range of views. We are concerned at reports that many candidates have been disqualified from standing in February's parliamentary elections.
Iraq
Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether former members of the Iraqi Ba'ath party will be permitted to stand for election in Iraq under the proposed arrangements being negotiated with the Iraq Governing Council. [151973]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The process of de-Ba'athification is an Iraqi led process. Guidelines were announced by the Iraqi Governing Council on 11 January and provide a clear framework for this process. The Transitional Administrative Law, which will include the criteria for nomination to the Transitional National Assembly, is in the final stages of drafting. It is likely to follow the existing practice that nominees shall not have been a member of the dissolved Ba'ath Party at the rank of Division Member (uthu firqah) or higher—unless exempted by the National De Ba'athification Commission—or a member of the past agencies of repression, or one who participated in the oppression of citizens.
South Africa
Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which official from Trade Partners UK was given a sabbatical to work with BAE Systems in South Africa; what date and for what period this sabbatical was given; and what position the official held prior to his sabbatical. [151388]
Ms Hewitt: I have been asked to reply.
Nicholas McInnes is a DTI Civil Servant who was granted Special Leave Without Pay at his request with effect from 30 April 2003 for one year. He is now working in South Africa. Previously he was Director, International Management Directorate in UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) formerly Trade Partners UK.
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Sri Lanka
Mr. Best: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the progress of the peace process in Sri Lanka. [152405]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) on 26 January 2004, Official Report, column 62W.
Mr. Best: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the (a) President and (b) Prime Minister of Sri Lanka about the political situation in Sri Lanka. [152406]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: My right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary met the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe in June 2003. However, the British High Commissioner in Colombo also has regular discussions with both the President and Prime Minister. He last met the President on 3 December 2003 and the Prime Minister on 12 January this year.
SCOTLAND
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when he will reply to the question tabled by the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland for answer on 22 January, on the Scottish whisky industry. [152947]
Mrs. McGuire: I replied to the hon. Member's question on 3 February 2004, Official Report, column 757W.
TRANSPORT
Public Bodies
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport who the members of the (a) Civil Aviation Authority, (b) Traffic Area Eastern and (c) Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee were on 1 January; what their term of office is in each case; and whether they are remunerated. [151806]
Mr. McNulty: The names, dates of appointment and annual remuneration of members of the Civil Aviation Authority, Traffic Area Eastern England and Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee are recorded in the following table.
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Railways
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what the total level of investment provided by the private sector in the railway industry was in each of the financial years since the publication of the 10 Year Plan; [152444]
- (2) if he will list the railway investment projects supported by the private sector in the last financial year; what the total level of funding provided by the private sector for these projects was (a) in the last financial year and (b) in total since the projects began; and what the private sector proportion of total funding for these projects was. [152445]
Mr. McNulty: The table shows total private rail investment in each of the three years 2000–01, 2001–02 and 2002–03:
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 2,958 |
| 2001–02 | 3,386 |
| 2002–03 | 3,156 |
Rail investment projects supported by the private sector in 2002–03 include the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), West Coast Route Modernisation (WCRM), the train protection scheme, stations and depots, Waterloo-Fawkham Junction and the East Coast Main Line.
The total level of private funding raised by London and Continental Railways (LCR) in 2002–03, mainly for CTRL, was £2.1 billion. The total amount spent by Network Rail (NR) in 2002–03 on the other projects listed was, respectively, £761 million, £140 million, £44 million, £26 million and £11 million.
Comparable figures for the private and public sector contributions to the CTRL project are not readily available. The total level of private funding raised by LCR since the CTRL project began, mainly for that project, is £6.3 billion, not all of which has yet been
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drawn. The project also benefits from Public Sector Support (including capital and operating grants and loans, less amounts recovered by Government in respect of land rentals and proceeds from property developments) estimated in 2002 to total, over the life of the project, £1.8 billion in present value terms (discounted at 6 per cent. real to January 1997).
Total spending to date on the WCRM project, by NR and its predecessor Railtrack, is of the order of £3 billion. Total NR spending on the other projects listed above, since they began, is not readily available. It is not possible accurately to estimate the proportion of total funding for these projects which is provided by the private sector, because some private rail investment is indirectly funded by the public sector through franchise payments and access charges.
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