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27 May 2004 : Column 1770W—continued

Local Government Finance

Mr. Rendel: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) if he will list for (a) 2003–04 and (b) 2004–05 the local authorities for which a funding (i) ceiling and (ii) floor has been imposed; [176366]

(2)   if he will list for each local authority for which a ceiling has been imposed (a) the grant calculated by the funding formula and (b) the grant actually received in real terms figures for (i) 2003–04 and (ii) 2004–05; and what the difference was in each case, expressed as a percentage of the local authority's council tax intake. [176367]

Mr. Raynsford: Two tables have been made available in the Library of the House showing the floor and ceiling classification of all authorities for 2003–04 and 2004–05 respectively, together with their formula grant before floors and ceilings, their formula grant after floors and ceilings, the difference, their council tax yield and the difference expressed as a percentage of the council tax yield.

It should be noted that ceilings do not fully meet the cost of the floor; therefore a scaling factor was applied to that portion of the grant increase above the level of the floor for all non-floor/non-ceiling authorities.

In 2004–05, there were no effective ceilings for both the shire district and police authority groups; the floors were funded entirely via the scaling factor.

Regional Assemblies

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his oral answer of 19 May 2004, Official Report, columns 968–69, on regional assemblies, what the evidential basis was for the figure given for the cost of answering the hon. Member for North Essex's written questions relating to the Government's information campaign on elected regional assemblies; and what the (a) total projected cost and (b) the cost to date of that campaign is. [175779]

Mr. Raynsford: Since January 2004 to date, the hon. Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) has asked 60 questions on issues related to elected regional assemblies, including the information campaign. The average cost of answering a parliamentary question, as calculated by Her Majesty's Treasury, is £135. This gives a total of £8,100.

For the total projected cost of the information campaign and its breakdown, I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 19 April 2004, Official Report, column 366W. To date, the Government have spent just under £700,000.
 
27 May 2004 : Column 1771W
 

Retained Firefighters

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many retained firefighters have been in service during each of the last four years. [176261]

Phil Hope: The information requested is as follows.
Retained firefighters in post, England and Wales, 2000–03 l

	Number
2000	14,698
2001	14,832
2002	14,719
2003	14,776

⁽²¹⁾ Data refer to retained workforce as at 31 March of each year

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to help in the recruitment of more retained firefighters. [176262]

Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has set up a review team to examine the issues which contribute to the challenges facing the fire and rescue service in the recruitment and retention of retained firefighters. The review team, a partnership between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and key service stakeholders, will submit its full report, with recommendations, to the Practitioners' Forum in July 2004.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has also sponsored the production of a public information video, highlighting the role of retained firefighters. This video was distributed to fire and rescue services this month for use as part of their community information programmes and as a recruitment tool.

Additionally, we have produced a new range of recruitment literature which will be launched in the summer for fire and rescue services to use in their retained recruitment campaigns.

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will extend the key worker definition to include (a) firefighters and (b) retained firefighters for the purposes of the affordable housing initiative. [176263]

Keith Hill: In the Fire Service, the Key Worker Living (KWL) programme is assisting whole-time junior officers and retained firefighters (all grades) to tackle recruitment and retention difficulties linked to housing issues experienced by these groups in London, the South East and Eastern Regions. Based on current evidence, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has no plans to extend the assistance to whole-time firefighters.

Rights of Way

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the navigability of rights of way; and what measures he plans to improve it. [175263]

Alun Michael: I have been asked to reply.

The Countryside Agency rights of way condition survey in England in 2000, found between 87 and 89 per cent. of routes "usable" by walkers, cyclists and horse riders. In addition, the statutory "best value" performance management framework requires local highway authorities to measure the ease of use of their
 
27 May 2004 : Column 1772W
 
rights of way, by carrying out annual surveys and reporting against their rights of way performance indicator.

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 requires local highway authorities to prepare rights of way improvement plans. These plans encourage highway authorities to take a strategic look at their rights of way network, with a view to accommodating modern patterns of demand and use and providing better for the needs of users. The Government have provided additional funding to enable the preparation of these plans.

TRANSPORT

Transport (Serious Emergency)

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how well developed Government plans are to deal with a serious emergency in the London Underground. [174681]

Mr. McNulty: Through the London Resilience partnership, the Government are working closely with London Underground, Transport for London, British Transport Police and the other emergency services to ensure that London's front-line responders are as well prepared as possible to deal with a serious emergency on the underground. This work is building on tried and tested emergency response procedures and practice developed by London Underground and the emergency services through thirty years of coping directly with terrorist alerts and other emergencies on the underground network. Over the past two and a half years, a number of steps have been taken—and continue to be taken—to strengthen further this emergency response capacity. These include the provision of new equipment to the emergency services, ongoing verbal and written briefings to London Underground staff and a continuing programme of training and exercises.

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment has been made of whether London Underground lines could be evacuated successfully in the event of a serious disruption to the electricity supply of the London Underground. [174685]

Mr. McNulty: This is an operational matter for London Underground, but during last August's power failure all passengers were safely evacuated following well-established procedures. Although not needed last August, LU has back up generators that provide sufficient power for essential equipment, including tunnel and additional station lights that enable the safe evacuation of trains trapped between stations.

London Underground has well established procedures for investigating any incident and how it was handled. LU published a report in December on the August power failure and has revised its procedures for evacuating trains, as well as improving familiarity with how to restore services following a power failure and has acted to reduce the risk of a similar incident.
 
27 May 2004 : Column 1773W
 

British Transport Police

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many British Transport Police officers there were in each London borough in each year since 1997. [172816]

Mr. McNulty: The British Transport Police (BTP) does not deploy its officers by borough due to the nature of policing the rail network in London. In London and the south east the numbers of police officers were:

	Police	Specials	Total
1997	1,148	0	1,148
1998	1,125	0	1,125
1999	1,123	1	1,124
2000	1,100	25	1,125
2001	1,125	31	1,156
2002	1,181	50	1,231
2003	1,250	79	1,329
2004	1,315	123	1,438

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