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6 Mar 2006 : Column 1096W—continued
Traffic Growth (Peterborough)
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his projections are for traffic growth on trunk roads in Peterborough in each of the next 10 years. [54858]
Dr. Ladyman: There are no recent projections of traffic growth on either of the two trunk roads, the A1 and A47, within the city of Peterborough but road based journeys to and from Peterborough are forecast to increase by about 19 per cent. over the next 10 years.
Trunk Road Resurfacing
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress has been made on the Government's target outlined in the 10-year Transport Plan to resurface 60 per cent. of the trunk road network by 2010 with quieter road surfacing; and if he will make a statement. [54909]
Dr. Ladyman: To date, the Highways Agency has resurfaced approximately 30 per cent. of the strategic road network with quieter materials.
Vehicle and Operator Services Agency
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many Vehicle and Operator Services Agency inspectors there were on the latest date for which figures are available; and how many are projected for each of the next five years. [55350]
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Dr. Ladyman: The following table shows a number of Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) roles including vehicle inspection. These figures are the most recent available (1 March 2006).
| VOSA roles | Number of inspectors |
|---|---|
| Tester | 84 |
| Traffic Examiners | 216 |
| Vehicle Inspectors | 422 |
| Vehicle Examiners | 535 |
| Enforcement Support Officer | 35 |
VOSA's value for money plans anticipate a reduction of approximately 270 mainly administrative and testing positions over the next two years in which event, VOSA intend to 're-invest' approximately 100 positions predominately in enforcement roles.
Exact figures for specific job positions have not yet been finalised. VOSA also anticipate an increase of up to 100 mainly enforcement positions as a result of new work commencing in the next two years such as enforcement of the working time directive.
VOSA have not currently made a prediction about staffing levels beyond the next two years.
Working Time Directive
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many and what proportion of non-UK registered vehicles were physically checked by (a) the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency and (b) the police for compliance with hours rules and Working Time Directive regulations over the past five years; and how many and what proportion of these were found not to be in compliance with (i) one and (ii) both sets of regulations. [55073]
Dr. Ladyman: The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) publish enforcement data annually in their Effectiveness Report which is available on www.vosa.gov.uk and in the House of Commons Library, Business and Transport Section.
Data is not collected centrally on checks conducted by the police. The Home Office publication of prosecutions for motoring offences gives the prosecutions for certain offences but does not differentiate between UK and non-UK registered vehicles.
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the costs of compliance with the hours rule and Working Time Directive. [55087]
Dr. Ladyman: The European drivers' hours rules (Council Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85) were adopted in 1985 and are directly applicable. We have made no recent assessment of the compliance costs.
The Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/639), which implemented European Directive 2002/15/EC on working time for mobile workers in Great Britain, estimated a compliance cost of £280 to
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£365 million per annum (copies of the RIA are available in the Libraries of the House). In practice, some early indications suggest that the compliance cost may have been overestimated. At this stage, it is still too early to assess the full impact of the regulations, but a review scheduled for later this year, will consider the actual impact on industry since they came into force in April 2005.
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the consistency of approach taken by different EU member states on the monitoring of the compliance of fleets of regulated vehicles with (a) hours rules and (b) Working Time Directive regulations. [55088]
Dr. Ladyman: All member states are required to submit a biennial return on the implementation of the drivers' hours rules to the European Commission which, in turn, produces a report based on the information received. The last European Commission report covered the years 1999 and 2000. Explanatory Memorandum No 9347/04 advised Parliament of that report.
Directive 2002/15/EC requires member states to put in place penalties to deal with breaches of the working time requirements. Although penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, there is no requirement for a consistent approach across member states. The enforcement method used is determined by the member state in question. The introduction of a consistent approach to procedures for checking compliance with the requirements of the directive would need to be agreed at a European level.
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the merits of requiring managers of regulated vehicle fleets to have their compliance with the hours rules and Working Time Directive Regulations audited by independent third parties operating under Government licence. [55097]
Dr. Ladyman: The use of independent third parties operating under Government licence to audit employers' compliance with the EU Drivers' Hours Rules and the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/639), which implement directive 2002/15/EC on working time for mobile workers in Great Britain, has not been assessed. The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency is responsible for enforcing the longstanding EU Drivers' Hours Rules and the 2005 Regulations. The current enforcement regime aims to minimise the regulatory cost and bureaucracy placed on industry, while meeting the enforcement requirements of European legislation.
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many hauliers have been prosecuted for infringements of the working time directive in the last 12 months, broken down by category of offence. [55167]
Dr. Ladyman:
The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) has made no prosecutions for infringements of the working time directive since it was implemented on 4 April 2005.
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TREASURY
Capital Gains Tax
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the capital gains tax status is of shared ownership sales by housing associations. [56192]
John Healey: Under the current rules non-charitable housing associations will be within the charge to corporation tax and liable to pay tax on chargeable gains, including those arising under shared ownership arrangements. The amount of such gains may be reduced by the various forms of relief that are available to companies, including the ability to deduct capital losses and the indexation allowance leaving only the net figure liable to tax.
Census Categories
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what factors determine which ethnic groups are included under the census ethnic group categories; how those factors were applied in determining whether to include Turkish as a category; and if he will make a statement. [56022]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the national statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 6 March 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question on what factors determine which groups are included under the Census ethnic group categories, and how these factors were applied in determining whether to include Turkish as a category. (56022).
The ethnic group classification in the 2001 Census was designed to allow the majority of people to use a tick box to answer the question. Since it would be impractical to list every ethnic group with a presence in the United Kingdom, the ethnic group categories shown are limited to those groups which have the largest presence in the population, for whom a substantial user need has been identified, and for whom other identifying information such as country of birth is not sufficient. Other criteria that are considered are continuity of categories over time and comparability across Censuses of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
The Office for National Statistics recognises that the ethnic groups named in the classification will not apply to all respondents. A tick box for 'Other, please specify' was included to allow respondents to identify their ethnic group if those listed did not apply to them. For your information, 65,318 people wrote in either Turkish (49,946) or Turkish Cypriot (15,372) in the United Kingdom in 2001. Of these, all but 418 were in England and Wales. The number of people who identify themselves using a write-in box, however, tends to be lower than the number who would give the same answer if a tick-box were provided.
The Office for National Statistics is currently reviewing the ethnic group question for the 2011 Census, including consideration of which groups are named in the classification.
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