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6 Feb 2006 : Column 798W—continued
Railways
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make it his policy that funding for the policing of the railways continues to be provided solely by the railway industry; and if he will make a statement. [48365]
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Derek Twigg: The Government remains committed to the principle that the costs of policing the railway should remain largely funded by the industry itself and most recently confirmed this policy when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced the current review of the British Transport Police (BTP) in his statement to the House on 11 October 2005.
Road Improvements
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2006, Official Report, column 1994W, on road improvements, how many of the Highways Agency Targeted Programme of Improvements projects are on the basis of (a) fixed price, (b) time and materials and (c) other. [47319]
Dr. Ladyman: Three of the Highways Agency Targeted Programme of Improvements projects are in category (a) , 39 of them are in category (b) and 17 of them are in category (c) .
Three categories have been interpreted as follows:
(a) Fixed price: PFI (private finance initiative) schemes or the pilot fixed price contract for A500 City Road and Stoke Junction
(b) Time and materials: The ECI (early contractor involvement) form of contract where the majority of the payments are made on actual cost against the target cost plus fixed profit and overheads
(c) Other: This has been taken to include ECC (engineering and construction contract) option B (priced contract with bill of quantities) and ECC option C (target price with activity schedule).
Road Maintenance
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much his Department has spent on minor repairs to trunk roads and motorways in the last three years. [47488]
Dr. Ladyman [holding answer 31 January 2006]: The motorways and trunks roads of the strategic road network are managed by the Highways Agency, an executive Agency of the Department for Transport. The reporting of the cost of managing these roads is not broken down by category of road. The funding for minor repairs to the strategic network is contained within a wider programme of maintenance, which covers a number of network components such as carriageways, footways, cycle tracks, drainage, street lighting, signs, traffic signals, guard railing, safety fencing and embankment/cutting slopes. It is not possible to report expenditure exclusively for the 'minor repairs' element of a much wider budget. The figures for repairing roads on the network in the last three years are shown in the following table.
| Maintenance(4) | |
|---|---|
| 2002–03 | 796 |
| 2003–04 | 726 |
| 2004–05 | 732 |
(4) Resource and capital expenditure.
Road Traffic Accidents
Mr. Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) fatal and (b) serious road traffic accidents occurred in the Tooting constituency in each year since 1997. [47756]
Dr. Ladyman: The number of fatal and serious personal injury road accidents that occurred in the parliamentary constituency of Tooting between 1997 and 2004 (the latest year for which figures are available), is given in the table. The accidents are those which occurred within the 2004 boundary of Tooting constituency.
| Fatal Accidents | Serious Accidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 4 | 71 |
| 1998 | 2 | 71 |
| 1999 | 2 | 38 |
| 2000 | 2 | 48 |
| 2001 | 1 | 54 |
| 2002 | 2 | 48 |
| 2003 | 6 | 36 |
| 2004 | 3 | 43 |
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) young drivers and (b) passengers of young drivers have been killed in road accidents in the last five years; and what steps the Government are taking to reduce these figures. [47918]
Dr. Ladyman: The number of young car drivers, and the number of passengers of young car drivers killed in personal injury road accidents between 2000 and 2004 (the latest year for which figures are available) are shown in the following table.
(5) Deaths within 30 days of the accident.
On measures to reduce these casualties, I refer to my answers to the hon. Member for Tewksbury (Mr. Robertson) on 6 December 2005, Official Report, column 1118W and to my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Wright) on 14 December 2005, Official Report, column 2023W.
Rotherwas Access Road
Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when a decision will be made on the Rotherwas access road in Hereford. [48433]
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Dr. Ladyman: We are currently considering advice from the west midland region about the prioritisation of the Rotherwas access road and other schemes in the west midlands area. We plan to make an announcement responding to this advice in the spring.
School Transport
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has to (a) subsidise and (b) facilitate independent travel to school by pupils. [48217]
Ms Buck: It is already open to individual local authorities to offer concessionary bus travel to people up to the age of 18. There are no plans at present to make such provision statutory.
Facilitating independent travel to school is a key objective of the 'Travelling to School' project which aims to make it possible for as many pupils as possible to walk, cycle or use public transport to travel to school.
Shellhaven Port
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he has taken to ensure that the developers of Shellhaven port make a financial contribution to the development of rail freight infrastructure in the Greater London area and beyond. [48734]
Dr. Ladyman: The Secretary of State will take into account all relevant matters in considering his decision on the proposed London Gateway port at Shellhaven. Interested parties have been invited to comment on representations received on issues, including road and rail access, raised in the Secretary of State's minded approval letter of 20 July 2005.
Speed Cameras
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the revenue was from fines resulting from speed camera convictions in Cambridgeshire in the latest year for which figures are available; and what sums were passed to (a) the Consolidated Fund and (b) the Cambridgeshire Safety Camera Partnership. [47920]
Dr. Ladyman: The Department only holds this information for offences detected by the Cambridgeshire Safety Camera Partnership within the national safety camera programme. The information is available for financial year 2004–05 and is shown in the following table.
| £ | |
|---|---|
| Total Fine Revenue | 1,196,460 |
| Partnership Costs | 1,021,261 |
| Passed to Consolidated Fund | 175,199 |
Transport Innovation Fund
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the criteria are for a successful bid to the Transport Innovation Fund. [47895]
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Ms Buck: The criteria against which allocations will be made from the Transport Innovation Fund are set out in the paper Transport Innovation Fund: Guidance: January 2006", which was announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport in a written statement on 26 January 2006, Official Report, columns 66–67WS.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will place in the Library a copy of the documentation relating to each (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful bid by local authorities for the Transport Innovation Fund. [47898]
Ms Buck: There have been no bids for the Transport Innovation Fund as yet. I have, though, placed in the Library a copy of the decision letters sent to all authorities which bid in October 2005 for pump-priming funds to support the development of schemes including demand management.
My right. hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced details of the winning bidders in November 2005 (28 November 2005, Official Report, column 3WS) and the bids can be found on the DFT's website at:
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the written statement of 26 January 2006, Official Report, columns 66–67WS, on the Transport Innovation Fund, if he will list the schemes which are expected to make a major contribution to national productivity for which existing sources of funding are insufficient. [48721]
Ms Buck: The basis for allocating funding from the Transport Innovation Fund to schemes expected to contribute to national productivity is set out in the paper Transport Innovation Fund: Guidance: January 2006" published by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport on 26 January. No view has yet been taken on which schemes may meet the criteria set out in that guidance, as we wish first to seek the views of the regional development agencies.
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