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Road Safety
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many staff in (a) his Department, (b) the Highways Agency and (c) other agencies and organisations funded by his Department work on (i) road safety issues and (ii) rail-related safety issues. [57817]
Ms Buck: The Department and its Agencies employee 18,722 staff as of 31 December 2005.
A large number of staff work in Divisions which have partial interest and/or responsibilities for Road or Rail Safety. Some where we can identify specific Road or Rail safety roles are as follows.
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Of the remaining Departmental staff, a number will be working in areas that promote Road or Rail Safety in line with DfT public service agreements, but it is not possible to provide the information in the format requested as the information is not held centrally and to do so would be at a disproportionate cost.
Transport Services (Greater Manchester)
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress has been made in implementing the South East Manchester Multi Modal Study in (a) Tameside metropolitan borough and (b) Stockport metropolitan borough; and if he will make a statement. [57815]
Ms Buck: Progress made on implementation of the major and minor elements of the strategy and the implementation of some of the major schemes arising from the South East Manchester Multi Modal Study in both (a) Tameside metropolitan borough and (b) Stockport metropolitan borough is highlighted in the Greater Manchester Local Transport Plan.
I understand that further details of progress will be available shortly, as part of the SEMMMS Implementation strategy document, to be published as part of the Greater Manchester Authorities final Local Transport Plan 2 submission.
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In addition, we are currently considering the scheme appraisal and bid for funding for SEMMMS New Relief Road and hope to make an announcement in due course.
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions his Department has had with Stagecoach Manchester on their bus strategy for South Manchester. [57820]
Ms Buck: Stagecoach provided the Department—and other stakeholders—with details of their alternative bus strategy. Mr. Brian Souter, Chief Executive of Stagecoach Group, has also discussed this strategy at meetings with myself and with the Secretary of State. No discussions of a more detailed nature have occurred.
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the (a) potential effect of the proposed Hazel Grove A6 Bypass in redirecting Manchester-bound traffic onto the M60 motorway and (b) potential consequential impact on the capacity of the M60/M67/A57 Denton interchange. [57980]
Dr. Ladyman: An outline assessment has been undertaken into the potential impacts of the A6 Hazel Grove Bypass and other South East Manchester Multi Modal Study road schemes on the M60 and the M60/M67/A57 Denton Interchange. I understand that the Greater Manchester local authorities are in the process of updating their transport model which will allow a more detailed appraisal of these and other impacts to be assessed.
Trunk Roads (Lancashire)
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his projections are for traffic growth on trunk roads in Lancashire in each of the next 10 years. [59027]
Dr. Ladyman:
We do not have projections specifically related to trunk roads in Lancashire. However demand for car trips to and from Lancashire is projected to increase by around 7 per cent. over the next 10 years.
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TREASURY
Biofuels
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans the Government have to increase the duty concession for biofuels after 2008. [58373]
John Healey: The Chancellor considers all relevant economic, social and environmental factors when deciding taxation policy.
Any changes will be announced by the Chancellor in the context of his Budget Statement.
Correspondence
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when HM Revenue and Customs will reply substantively to the letter from the hon. Member for the Isle of Wight dated 1 December 2005, to which an acknowledgement was sent on 7 December 2005. [59045]
Dawn Primarolo: The Chairman wrote to the hon. Member on 2 March 2006.
Departmental Expenditure
Keith Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many Government Departments overspent in each year between 1997 and 2005; [59494]
(2) what the combined overspend of all Government Departments was in each year between 1997 and 2005; [59495]
(3) what the total budgets are for each Government Department in the 2005–06 financial year. [59497]
Mr. Des Browne: Final provision and outturn for departmental budgets is published in the Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis each year. Departmental plans for 2005–06 are published in Spring Supplementary Estimates.
Departmental Staff
Keith Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many visits special advisers in his Department made in an official capacity (a) in the UK and (b) abroad since 2000; what places were visited; and how much each visit cost. [52675]
John Healey: Since 1999 the Government have published, on an annual basis, the total costs of all ministerial overseas travel and a list of all visits by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500. Copies of the lists are available in the Library of the House. Information for the financial year 2004–05 was published on 21 July 2005, Official Report, column 158WS. The Treasury's records show that the Chancellor's and the Chief Secretary's Special Advisers made no overseas visits in 2004–05 other than in the company of Ministers, and the costs of the their overseas travel are included in the annual list of overseas travel by Cabinet Ministers. Information for the financial year 2005–06 is in the process of being collated and will be published when it is ready.
For the cost of special advisers' overseas travel for years 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04, I refer respectively to the answer given to the former hon. Member for
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Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Collins) on 25 March 2002, Official Report, column 734W, and the answers given to the hon. Member for Chichester (Mr. Tyrie) on 19 June 2002, Official Report, column 389W, 15 September 2003, Official Report, column 603W and 9 December 2004, Official Report, column 655W.
Information regarding special advisers' domestic travel could be provided only at disproportionate cost. All travel by special advisers is undertaken in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Ministerial Code" and the Civil Service Management Code".
Drug-related Deaths
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 23 January 2006 to the hon. Member for Woking (Mr. Malins), Official Report, columns 1731–32W, on drug-related deaths, if he will break down the number of deaths which occurred in each year since 1997 by (a) adults and (b) children. [58567]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 16 March 2006:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question (pursuant to the answer of 23rd January 2006 to the hon. member for Woking, Official Report, columns 1731–2W, on drug related deaths) seeking a break down of the number of deaths which occurred in each year since 1997 by (a) adults and (b) children. I am replying in her absence. (58567)
The previous answer gave figures to 2003. The most recent year for which figures are now available is 2004. The table below shows the number of deaths for which the underlying cause was drug poisoning, where any drug controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act were mentioned on the death certificate by age group for the years 1997 to 2004.
(11) Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (1CD-9) codes 292, 304, 305.2–305.9, E850-E858, E950.0-E950.5, E962.0 and E980.0-E980.5 for 1994 to 2000, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (1CD-10) codes F11-F16, F18- F19, X40-X44, X60-X64, X85 and Y10-Y14 from 2001 onwards.
(12) Includes deaths where the underlying cause was drug-related poisoning and a drug controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 was mentioned on the death record.
(13) Figures are for deaths occurring in each calendar year.
(14) Figures for 2003 have been corrected from those previously published due to an error in the coding of drug misuse deaths for that data year. This was reported in Health Statistics Quarterly 29, which was released on 23 February 2006.
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