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14 Jul 2005 : Column 1163W—continued
Driving Tests
Mr. Michael Foster:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 11 July 2005, Official Report, column 668W, how many (a) passes
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and (b) failures of motor car driving tests there were in each test centre in Worcestershire in each of the last five years. [12200]
Dr. Ladyman: The table shows the results of practical car driving tests conducted at test centres in Worcestershire in each of the last five years.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas
Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what percentage of (a) private vehicles and (b) commercial vehicles are adapted to run on LPG fuel. [11578]
Dr. Ladyman: This information is not available.
Night Flights (Heathrow)
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what caused the disruption that led to an increase in flights leaving London Heathrow between 23.30 and 06.00 on the night of (a) 29 June and (b) 19 June; and if he will make a statement. [10088]
Ms Buck: The information requested is as follows.
(a) On the nights of 28/29 June and 29/30 June there was an increase in departures from Heathrow due to severe weather (including hail and thunderstorms) which significantly affected air traffic across British, European, Oceanic and some Trans Atlantic routes. This contributed to severe terminal congestion at Heathrow.
(b) On the afternoon and evening of 19 June there were severe delays to aircraft using Heathrow due to computer software problems at the Air Traffic Control Centre at Swanwick which led to air traffic flow restrictions. This necessitated more aircraft than usual being allowed to take-off and to land after 11.30 pm. The problems were resolved by the following morning.
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The rules under which aircraft may be granted dispensations from the night restrictions have applied for many years. They were confirmed as part of the present night restrictions regime at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted announced on 10 June 1999.
Rail Services
Mrs. Riordan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the review of train services across the Northern train franchise region will be completed. [9738]
Derek Twigg: The review has been under way for some months now. We anticipate development of detailed options over the summer which would be fully consulted upon towards the end of the year.
Road Schemes
Colin Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the (a) expected cost when first submitted for approval and (b) most recently-estimated or final cost is of each road scheme (i) in the Targeted Programme of Improvements and (ii) submitted for funding through the Local Transport Plan Process between 1999–2000 and 2004–05. [11269]
Dr. Ladyman: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Speed Cameras
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much money has been collected in fines from motorists as a result of the speed camera at the southern end of the M11. [11964]
Dr. Ladyman: The Department's information on fines following offences detected by safety cameras relates to the totals for safety camera partnerships, and not to individual camera sites. Information on the total fine receipts and number of fines for each partnership for the latest audited year 2003–04 is available on the Department's website of responses to freedom of information requests.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many speed cameras are planned for each side of the A102 between the A11 and the A13. [12268]
Dr. Ladyman: The Department is not aware of any proposals to implement further speed camera sites on the A102 at the present time.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the locations of the speed cameras on both sides of the (a) A13 and (b) A127 between the M25 and Southend; and if he will list the planned locations of new speed cameras for both sides of the (i) A13 and (ii) A127 between the M25 and Southend. [12271]
Dr. Ladyman: The information is not held by the Department. The Essex Safety Camera Partnership publishes details of the number and location of all safety camera sites, available through its website www.essexsafetycameras.co.uk.
The Department is not aware of any proposals to implement further speed, camera sites on either the A13 or A127 at the present time.
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V5 Registration
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will (a) extend the deadline for replacement of V5 registration certificates and (b) publicise the need for replacement licences through additional channels. [12137]
Dr. Ladyman: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and its agents will continue to accept V5 registration documents supporting registration or licensing activities, provided the document is the last one issued.
The introduction of the new V5 registration certificate to meet EU requirements has already been the subject of an extensive publicity campaign. Advertisements have featured in a television campaign, the national and motoring press, as well as on major on-line sites. Information leaflets explaining the initiative have also been dispatched with DVLA mail. There are no plans to publicise the scheme further.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of vehicle owners who should have applied for the new V5C licence have not done so. [12154]
Dr. Ladyman: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency estimated that as of 1 June 2005, the number of old style V5 Vehicle Registration Documents remaining to be converted to the V5C Registration Certificate was approximately 800,000 (accounting for about 2.5 per cent. of vehicle keepers).
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will arrange for people whose vehicles which have been off the road since before Statutory Off Road Notification was introduced, and are exempted from Vehicle Excise Duty, to apply for a free replacement of the V5 registration by a EU model V5C registration certificate. [12136]
Dr. Ladyman: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has already made arrangements for all vehicle keepers who have not received the V5C registration certificate to be able to exchange their old V5 registration document free of charge. If a keeper is unable to produce the old V5 registration document, a fee of £19 is payable.
TREASURY
Constituency Statistics
Mr. Betts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list for each parliamentary constituency the ratio of those aged 18 years and over at the last census to the number of registered electors, in order of the size of the ratio. [10815]
John Healey
[holding answer 12 July 2005]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
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Letter from Jil Matheson to Mr. Clive Betts, dated 14 July 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question concerning the ratio of the population, aged 18 and over, recorded in the 2001 census to the number of residents who were registered to vote in each parliamentary constituency. I am replying in his absence. (10815)
In order to give an estimate of the number of electors on census day (29 April 2001), a weighted average is taken of the 1 February 2001 and 1 December 2001 electoral data. Data are given for parliamentary electorates. Data for the local/European electorate, by parliamentary constituency are not readily available for 2001
It should be noted that the ratio of residents who are registered to vote in each constituency is not a reliable estimate of the registration rate of the eligible population: the resident population aged 18 and over is not the same as the number of people eligible to vote.
The UK parliamentary electorate excludes residents of countries other than the UK and the Commonwealth and includes UK citizens resident abroad. In addition not everyone who is usually resident is entitled to vote (foreign citizens from outside of the EU and Commonwealth, prisoners, etc. are not eligible) and people who have more than one address may register in more than one place. Also there is inevitably some double counting of the registered electorate as electoral registration officers vary in how quickly they remove people from the registers after they have moved away from an area or after they have died. This latter is the main reason why in some constituencies the population aged 18 and over is less than those registered to vote. These factors may have a different impact from place to place.
Furthermore, you should note that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revised the mid-2001 population estimates since the publication of the 2001 census results. In September 2003, revisions were made that added approximately 193,000 to the population of England and Wales. This revision primarily related to the addition of a number of young males that were not captured by the census. In September 2004, ONS made further revisions as a result of concluding studies designed to improve population estimates in the areas that proved hardest to count in the 2001 census in England and Wales. The results of this work showed that the one number census (ONC) worked well in most areas, but that there were a few cases where it was not able sufficiently to adjust for exceptional circumstances. The analysis showed that there was a need for revisions to the 2001 census based population figures of around 107,000 for England and Wales as a whole. The adjustments were included in the new mid-year population estimates for 2001, published in 2004. The census database itself was not revised following the publication of these adjustments. More details on these issues can be found at: www.statistics.gov.uk/lastudies .
Any comparison of these data with figures for other years should be made carefully as electoral legislation and other changes (such as EU expansion) can change the size of the electorate.
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