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15 Nov 2004 : Column 940W—continued
Meetings
Mr. Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list meetings he has held with (a) officials and (b) members of (i) passenger transport authorities and (ii) passenger transport executives since 1 March. [197935]
Charlotte Atkins: The Secretary of State has met during the course of regional visits since March representatives of Nexus in Tyne and Wear, Merseytravel in Merseyside and Centro in the West Midlands.
Private Finance Initiatives
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the private finance initiative arrangements in which the Department is engaged; what the total cost of each arrangement is (a) over its lifetime and (b) in each year of its operation; and how the arrangement appears in the Department's public accounts. [193976]
Charlotte Atkins: The forecast capital value of PFI contracts awarded by the Department for Transport and its Agencies are reported to Parliament on a six-monthly basis. Details are available from the HM Treasury website.
Details of the (a) lifetime total and (b) forecast annual unitary charge payments for all the PFI contracts awarded by the Department for Transport and its agencies have been placed in the Libraries of the House. The payment of the full unitary charge sum is contingent on the contractor providing a quality service in line with the project's output specification.
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The Department for Transport Resource Accounts record:
The information in the Resource Accounts relates to Highways Agency. Payments by the Vehicle Operator and Services Agency are not consolidated into the Department's Resource Accounts.
Railways
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what meetings his Department has had with representatives of (a) Network Rail, (b) the train operating companies and (c) others in the rail industry about the changes being made to the structure of the railways. [194650]
Mr. Darling: Both my ministerial colleagues and I, as well as my officials, met and continue to meet regularly with a wide range of representatives from the rail industry following the announcement of the Rail Review in January this year and publication in July of the Rail White Paper—"The Future of Rail".
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions (a) he and (b) his Department have had with the Prime Minister on the future of the railway industry. [194651]
Mr. Darling: I meet with the Prime Minister on a regular basis to discuss a range of transport issues.
Regulatory Impact Assessments
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what the aggregate annual cost obtained by adding the costs in each regulatory impact assessment is of regulations imposed by his Department since 1997; [196561]
(2) what his latest estimate is of the costs to (a) Government and (b) regulators of transport regulation in a year; [196562]
(3) what his latest estimate is of the compliance cost to business of transport regulation in a year. [196563]
Charlotte Atkins: All proposals which impact on business, charities or the voluntary sector require a regulatory impact assessment (RIA) which includes details of the costs, benefits and risks of the proposal. RIAs are subject to public consultation and copies of final RIAs are available from the House Libraries and on the departmental website at http://www.dft.gov.uk/.
Remote Regional Airports
John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will introduce a compulsory scheme of six months' notice of intention before withdrawal of flights serving remote regional airports. [197341]
Charlotte Atkins:
There is presently no legal basis on which compulsory notification of withdrawal from a route could be required. However, the Department
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recently consulted on a voluntary scheme where an airline operating regional air services to London airports, would give four months notice of any intention to withdraw from, or reduce services on, regional routes. The consultation closed on 8 November and we will be considering the responses carefully.
John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what research he has commissioned on the role frequency of flights plays in the (a) economic and (b) social wellbeing of remote rural areas. [197342]
Charlotte Atkins: The Department for Transport has not commissioned any analysis to be carried out on the role frequency of flights plays in the economic and social wellbeing of remote rural areas.
Rotherwas Access Road
Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what representations he has received concerning the proposed Rotherwas access road; and if he will make a statement. [191365]
Charlotte Atkins: The Secretary of State for Transport has received 19 representations about the proposed Rotherwas access road. In March this year, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Tony McNulty) met with Herefordshire council to discuss the scheme and other transport matters. I also met with my hon. Friend and Hertfordshire council recently to discuss the Rotherwas access road.
The proposed road was initially submitted to DfT for approval in July 2003. The scheme was not approved and the council were informed that further consideration was required as to whether the scheme provides value for money for the benefits to be gained, the extent of the potential employment benefits and whether the scheme proposed is the best option for improving access to the estate. The scheme was re-submitted in July 2004. The Secretary of State for Transport will make an announcement about this and other schemes later this year as part of the Local Transport Settlement.
South East Trains
Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what steps he will take to ensure the public gets value for money from the future operators of the South East Trains franchise; [196869]
(2) what discussions he has had with South East Trains about the future of its franchise; [196870]
(3) if he will list the performance against each target set for South East Trains for each month since it took over from Connex; what the performance figures were for the same periods in the previous five years; and if he will make a statement; [196871]
(4) what measures he will put in place to ensure that train services do not deteriorate if the South East Trains franchise is put back into the private sector. [196873]
Mr. McNulty:
South East Trains (SET) is being operated as a subsidiary of the Strategic Rail Authority under s.30 of the Railways Act 1993 pending its re-franchising as part of the new Integrated Kent Franchise (IKF). The Department has frequent discussions with the SRA on a variety of issues.
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We expect the new operator for IKF franchise to be in place late 2005. The operator will be chosen by a process of competitive tendering. The winner of the competition will be the bidder that offers best value for money for passengers and taxpayers throughout the life of the franchise. The franchise agreement will specify performance and service standards that the operator will need to meet otherwise be in breach of the franchise agreement.
SET's passengers' charter sets targets for punctuality and reliability. If the moving annual average falls below the relevant threshold it will trigger compensation payments to season tickets holders. The targets for punctuality and reliability on their main line services are 82 per cent. and 98 per cent. respectively. The targets for punctuality and reliability on their Metro services are 86.5 per cent. and 98 per cent. respectively. A table showing SET's passengers charter performance per four-week period over the last five years has been placed in the Library of the House.
The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) measures train operator performance using the public performance measure (PPM) which combines punctuality and reliability. PPM is published in the SRA's National Rail Trends, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
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