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1 Mar 2006 : Column 731W—continued
Railway Stations
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the railway stations in Hampshire which (a) do not have (i) waiting rooms and (ii) toilets and (b) are inaccessible under disability discrimination legislation; what steps are being taken to improve the position in each case; and if he will make a statement. [50497]
Derek Twigg: The following stations in Hampshire do not have waiting rooms and toilets and have steps to some of the platforms.
South West Trains, the station operator, currently complies with all its Franchise Agreement station facilities obligations and expects to continue to do so until the end of the franchise in February 2007.
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The Invitation to Tender for the South Western Franchise will require bidders to present their plans for improvements at stations throughout the franchise.
Spending Review (Efficiency Targets)
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much is expected to be saved as a result of meeting the civil service work force reductions targets for his Department set out in the 2004 Spending Review; and whether these savings count towards the agreed efficiency target for his Department set out in the review. [52793]
Ms Buck: The Department has a target to reduce headcount by 700 full-time equivalents (FTEs) by 2007–08. The central Department will reduce headcount by 200 FTEs, which is expected to yield efficiency gains of £10.7 million in 2007–08. DVLA will reduce headcount by 500 FTEs which will contribute to the Driver, Vehicle and Operator Group's target to deliver £70 million of economy and efficiency savings by 2007–08.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much of the agreed efficiency target for his Department set out in the 2004 Spending Review is to be cashable; and under what budget headings these cashable efficiency savings will be re-spent. [52834]
Ms Buck: At least 50 per cent. of the Department's agreed efficiency target of £785 million will be cashable.
The cashable savings due to be released through the efficiency programme were allocated across departmental expenditure following the SR04 spending settlement. There is no direct link to individual budget headings.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the target level of employment expressed as full-time equivalents is in his Department by April 2008, in order to meet his Department's civil service work force reductions target set out in the 2004 Spending Review. [52852]
Ms Buck: The target level of employment for the Department for Transport and executive agencies (excluding the Office of Rail Regulator, DfT staff in the Government Offices and the Government Car and Despatch Agency) for April 2008 is 17,981 full-time equivalent staff.
The figure for April 2008 takes into account the planned reduction of 200 full-time equivalents (FTEs) in the centre of the Department for Transport and the reduction of 500 FTEs in DVLA.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what total efficiency savings were achieved by his Department in 2004–05; and whether these count towards the agreed efficiency target for his Department set out in the 2004 Spending Review. [52857]
Ms Buck: The Department achieved efficiency gains of £288.3 million in 2004–05. These gains contribute to the Department's Spending Review 2004 target to achieve £785 million of efficiency gains by 2007–08.
Mrs. Villiers:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what baseline figures he is using for assessing progress on his Department's targets to
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(a) improve roads procurement in local authorities, (b) increase tax collection by the Driver and Vehicle Operator Group and achieve efficiencies through transactional services and other areas within the Driver and Vehicle Operator Group, (c) restructure and reform his Department and its support services and (d) deliver efficiencies as a result of Transport for London's plans and from local authority spending; what progress has been made towards these targets to date; and what the total efficiency savings achieved to date are for these targets. [52932]
Ms Buck: The 2004 baseline figure for improving roads procurement in local authorities is equal to the local authority 2004–05 highways budget. As it is the decision of the local authorities how they divide their budget and only local authorities who choose to claim highways efficiencies calculate baselines, a precise baseline covering all local authority roads spend is unavailable. In 2004–05, the Highways Agency Local Authority Roads workstream achieved efficiency gains of £27 million.
The baseline for increasing tax collection by the Driver, Vehicle and Operator Group is based on the roadside survey of vehicle excise duty evasion carried out in 2003. The level of evasion was recorded as 4.8 per cent. In 2004–05 the level of evasion was 3.2 per cent. This decrease resulted in £77 million of efficiency gains.
The 2004 baseline for efficiencies through transactional services and other areas in the Driver, Vehicle and Operator Group is £723 million. This area generated efficiencies of 24.7 million in 2004–05.
The baseline for reforming the Department and the Shared Services Programme is £228 million.
The baseline for efficiencies resulting from Transport for London's (TfL) business plan is £2.25 billion. It was set in 2004-05. The baseline for efficiencies as a result of improvements in London Underground running and capacity from Public private partnerships (PPP) is £1 billion of the total TfL baseline from 2003–04. Due to the start date of the PPP contracts in December 2002 and April 2003, the most appropriate baseline for measuring these gains is 2003–04. In 2004–05 TfL realised efficiency gains of £119 million. An additional £46 million efficiency gains were realised as a result of improvements in London Underground running and capacity from PPPs.
The baselines for efficiencies resulting from local authority non-roads spending (excluding TfL) is equal to the total local authority 2004-05 budget for this sector. It is the decision of local authorities how they divide their budget and only local authorities that choose to claim efficiencies in the non-roads spend area calculate baselines. This means a precise baseline covering all local authority non-roads spend is unavailable. In 2004–05, the local authority non-roads workstream (excluding TfL) generated £19 million of efficiency gains.
Baselines and the basis for determining them were agreed with the Gershon Review Team.
Mrs. Villiers:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what interim targets he has set for achieving (a) the agreed efficiency target for his Department and
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(b) the civil service work force reductions targets for (i) gross reductions in posts, (ii) net reductions in posts and (iii) relocations for his Department, as set out in the 2004 Spending Review; what the baseline figures are against which these interim targets are assessed; on what dates they will take effect; and by what dates these interim targets are intended to be met. [52944]
Ms Buck: The Department has a Spending Review 2004 target to achieve £785 million of efficiency gains by 2007-08. The Department has not established interim targets.
The Department has a target to reduce headcount by 700 full-time equivalents (FTEs) by 2007–08 relative to the 2004 baseline.
The Department has a target to relocate 60 posts out of London by 2010.
The Department continually monitors and reviews progress towards the 2007–08 efficiency target across the Efficiency Programme.
Transport Infrastructure Projects
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the transport infrastructure projects on which his Department has carried out feasibility studies since 1997. [43362]
Ms Buck: For transport infrastructure projects, a range of appraisal information including assessments using the New Approach to Transport Appraisal system apply to all schemes submitted to the Department for funding. Appraisal will cover the practicality of a scheme and this may involve a specific feasibility study. The Department does not hold a comprehensive record of all of the infrastructure projects where a specific study on feasibility was undertaken. Often this work would be undertaken by the scheme promoter, such as a local authority, and compiling a list of such feasibility studies would be prohibitively expensive.
Some particular rail projects where feasibility studies since 1997 were conducted by the Strategic Rail Authority, now part of the Department, were: The North South High Speed Line, Cross London Feasibility Study and The Future use of Waterloo International. The Government laid out its strategy for the future of the Air Transport industry in the Air Transport White Paper. This contains details of the supporting studies used in developing it, and can be found at: www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft aviation/documents/divisionhomepage/029650.hcsp
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