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Transport Delays

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent (a) assessment he has made and (b) research he has commissioned into the cost, in terms of (i) customer and (ii) business time and financial impact, of transport delays. [180906]

Mr. McNulty: The Department has recently updated its estimates of the costs of business and other time spent in travelling. These estimates are used to assess whether the benefits that projects and policies can be expected to deliver in terms of reducing delays exceed the costs of the measures proposed. The new values are based on research commissioned from the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds and were published on the Department's website in June 2004.

Transport Projects

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the letters of comfort which have been provided by (a) his Department and (b) the Treasury in relation to transport projects in each year since 2001; and what the (i) nature and (ii) value of the project was in each case. [180887]

Mr. McNulty: A full listing of letters of comfort, which this Department has provided, can be obtained from Note 25 of the published 2002–03 Departmental Resource Accounts. The note gives details on the value as well as nature of the projects.

The Treasury has not provided any letters of comfort in relation to transport projects.

Traveline

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment has been conducted of the effectiveness of (a) the Traveline phone service and (b) the traveline.org.uk website; and if he will place copies of related correspondence in the Library. [180850]

Mr. McNulty: The information required is as follows.

(a) The traveline telephone service has been operating since 1 August 2000. In 2003, traveline answered 4.2 million calls. Mystery shopping surveys are conducted twice a year to measure the quality of the service, with the most recent survey giving an overall average score of 88 per cent. for a number of measures, including customer service, detail and accuracy. British Telecom is contracted to measure the quality of the telecommunications of traveline's 23 call-centres—the latest findings showed that the call-centres answered 96.2 per cent. of all calls received. 88.3 per cent. of direct calls and 90.9 per cent. of transfer calls were answered within 30 seconds.
 
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(b) The traveline.org.uk site has been operating since August 2001. While there has been no assessment of the effectiveness of the traveline.org.uk site, the latest figures show that there were 90,582 visits to the site in May 2004.

Truck Security

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidance he has issued to the road haulage industry relating to the security of trucks; and if he will make a statement. [181192]

Mr. Jamieson: The Department published in February this year a voluntary Code of Practice for the security of transporting dangerous goods by road. This was developed and agreed by Government, police and industry. It is supported by guidance, which outlines ways in which the provisions of the code could be met and includes measures to improve the security of trucks.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Cost Efficiency

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what procedures are in place in his Department to ensure cost efficiency in purchasing technical cooperation and consultancy; and if he will list the occasions when his Department has used bulk buying to ensure cost efficiency in each of the last three years. [180598]

Hilary Benn: DFID applies the Public Procurement Regulations to purchase consultancy for technical cooperation through fair and transparent international competition. DFID uses appropriate procurement strategies to obtain best value, including collaborative purchasing with other government departments. We do not bulk buy services. We use Framework Agreements with companies and individuals. These allow us to aggregate our predicted requirements and to obtain services when we need them at fair prices with low transaction costs.

A list of all DFID Framework Agreements entered into since April 2001 has been placed in the House of Commons Library.

Diamonds

Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the progress being made by his Department towards the production of an effective monitoring system and codes to ensure that only certified diamonds enter the global diamond market. [181271]

Mr. Rammell: I have been asked to reply.
 
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The Kimberley Process certification scheme for the international trade in rough diamonds has been implemented by 43 countries and the European Community since January 2003. Each member of the scheme ensures that it only trades in rough diamonds accompanied by a certificate from the exporting government attesting that the goods are conflict free.

Monitoring of the scheme, to ensure effective internal controls underpinning the national certificate, is via peer review. This includes on the ground inspections, annual self-assessments and the regular exchange of detailed statistical and other data, including on legislative and administrative procedures.

European Development Fund

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the amount of money in the European Development Fund allocated for overseas projects but unspent (a) this year and (b) last year. [181383]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: EOF programmes are committed and spent over a number of years. The current 9 EOF, which includes uncommitted funds transferred from the 6, 7and 8 EDFs, will finance commitments over the period 2000–07. The overall level of the 9 EDF is €16.2 billion (£10.8 billion), of which €13.5 billion (£9 billion) is new funding and €2.7 billion (£1.8 billion) is transferred from previous EDFs.

In 2003, commitments totalled €4.1 billion (£2.7 billion) with payments amounting to €2.4 billion (£1.6 billion). The EC's latest estimates for 2004 forecast commitments of €3.4 billion (£2.25 billion) and payments of €2.6 billion (£1.7 billion). Commitments and payment levels are expected to remain broadly similar in 2005.

The EC issues calls for member states' contributions to the EDF in three instalments per annum. These are based on the Commission's forecasts of payment requirements and agreed by Council Decision. Member states transfer their funds to the Commission once the level of each overall instalment has been agreed.

Extractive Industries Review

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what support he will give to implementing the recent extractive industries review for the World Bank; and if he will make a statement. [181977]

Hilary Benn: I refer the hon. Member for Leeds, West to the answer given to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) on 1 March 2004, Official Report, column 619W.

DFID is currently studying the World Bank management's response to the Extractive Industries Review (EIR) and will make our position on the EIR recommendations public shortly.

Highly Indebted Poor Countries

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the Government debt outstanding excluding Export Credits Guarantee Department debt to each country outside the EU and
 
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G10 (a) was in 1997 and (b) is now; and how much debt has been cancelled in each case since the launch of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. [181107]

Hilary Benn: Excluding Export Credits Guarantee Department debt, outstanding debts to the UK Government are either old aid loans or loans formally held by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) which were transferred to DFID when CDC was part-privatised in 1999. Many such loans have already been written off, either under Retrospective Terms Adjustment (RTA)—the policy to forgive loans to low income countries—or under the Commonwealth Debt Initiative (GDI) which was launched to reduce formal government to government debt for low and lower-middle income countries in the Commonwealth. It is also UK policy to write-off 100 per cent. of all bilateral debts for countries when they qualify for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. HIPC debt repayments are suspended at HIPC Decision Point and formally written off at Completion Point.

UK Government debt outstanding on former aid loans to countries outside the EU and G10 was:

(a) on 1 April 1997—£389,627,196 (of which £341,460,302 principal and £48,166,894 interest)

(b) on 1 April 2004—£146,807,222 (of which £132,517,931 principal and £14,289,291 interest)

For accounting purposes, DFID adopts a process of cancelling debts as they become due. This means that some of the debts in the above figures have been officially cancelled but will continue to show up on DFID's accounts until the loans expire. The total amount of former aid loans cancelled under debt initiatives between 1997 and 2004, included in the above figures, is £167,973,700 (of which £143,405,982 principal and £24,567,718 interest). However, since 1997, DFID has committed to cancelling £266,100,904 (of which £233,331,961 principal and £32,768,943 interest) and countries do not have to make repayments on these debts, provided that they remain committed to poverty reduction. I have arranged for a copy of a table to show all former aid loans listed by country to be placed in the Library.

Debts outstanding on loans made by the CDC to countries outside the EU and G10 were:

(a) on 31 December 1997—£283,118,860.52 (of which £275,358,759.57 principal and £7,760,100.95 interest)

(b) on 31 May 2004—£241,608,825.92 (of which £165,957,368.44 principal and £75,651,457.48 interest). Of this total amount, only £96,366,201.28 is live debt, as the remaining £145,242,624.64 has been suspended under RTA, CDI or HIPC.

The total amount of former CDC debt cancelled under debt relief initiatives between 1997 and 2004 is £16,498,403.48. A further £128,761,546.29 has been suspended and will either be formally cancelled when the debtor country reaches HIPC Completion Point or reviewed on a year-by-year basis against the CDI criteria of the debtor Government's commitment to poverty reduction, sound economic policies and good governance. I have arranged for a copy of two tables entitled 'CDC loans in 1997 and in 2004' listed by country and an explanation of the amounts cancelled
 
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and suspended to be placed in the Library (Table 2—CDC Loans at 31 December 1997 and Table 3—CDC Loans at 31 May 2004).

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