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11 May 2006 : Column 425W—continued
GNER
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the impact of the award of an open GNER contract to Grand Central, with particular reference to the ability of GNER (a) to achieve the objective of more trains between London and Leeds and (b) to pay the Government the amount required under its franchise agreement. [68414]
Derek Twigg: Network Rail has been required by the Office of Rail Regulation to undertake further timetabling work to establish how many additional GNER Leeds-London trains can be accommodated in addition to the additional Grand Central and Hull Trains services for which ORR recently granted access rights. The GNER franchise agreement contains a commitment to pursue a half-hourly service to Leeds. The financial provisions of the GNER franchise agreement does not include the additional Leeds services in the agreed premium payments.
Heathrow
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what meetings (a) he has and (b) his Ministers have had with (i) airport operators, (ii) aircraft operators and associated companies and (iii) the travel industry to discuss (A) night flights and (B) the expansion of Heathrow in the past two years; and if he will place in the Library the minutes of those meetings. [69834]
Gillian Merron: Ministers have met with a wide range of such bodies over the past two years. Issues relating to night flights and the expansion of Heathrow will have been discussed in the course of many of these meetings, along with other aviation issues. The matters discussed at such meetings are often confidential for commercial or other reasons, and it would not be appropriate to place the minutes in the House Library.
Level Crossings
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many level crossings there are in each parliamentary constituency in England and Wales. [69619]
Derek Twigg: Information on the number of level crossings is recorded by Network Rail zone not by parliamentary constituency. Data on the number of crossings in each zone are contained in the Health and Safety Executive's Railway Safety annual report for 2004, copies of which are in the Library of the House.
MOT Computer System
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many days the MOT computer system has worked without a technical problem occurring since its formal live date. [69552]
Dr. Ladyman: The MOT computerisation system was rolled out between 18 April 2005 and 29 March 2006. The supported service is available to garages between the hours of 6am to 10pm daily, 365 days of the year. Technical problems that have occurred have never impacted all garages and, save one recent incident, have not lasted a complete day. Supported service availability to the end of April 2006, is 99.37 per cent. (accuracy measured on a minute basis). Over the same period, the number of days without any technical problem occurring was 350 days (93 per cent.).
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much has been spent by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) on the new MOT computer system. [69553]
Dr. Ladyman: Expenditure on the MOT computerisation programme was £24 million from the inception of the project to the commencement of roll out (18 April 2005). This includes VOSA internal project costs and payments to Siemens Business Systems. Expenditure to the completion of roll out to all testing stations is £32.1 million.
Petrol Sales
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent estimate he has made of how many litres of petrol are purchased in a year for use in (a) road haulage, (b) private cars and (c) city buses. [69748]
Dr. Ladyman: Consumption of road fuel by weight is published by the Department in “Transport Statistics Great Britain” (see TGSB 2005, Table 3.1 Petroleum Consumption: by transport mode and fuel type). Figures can be converted from tonnes to litres by dividing the weight of the fuel by the density of the fuel (0.000736 tonnes per litre for petrol and 0.000832 tonnes per litre for diesel). No petrol (motor spirit) is consumed by buses or heavy goods vehicles as these vehicles have diesel engines. A copy of the TGSB 2005 is available in the House Library.
Railways
Mr. Wilshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the rail franchise contracts that are expected to be awarded before the end of 2008. [67270]
Derek Twigg: The following franchise contracts are expected to be awarded before 1 January 2009: South Western, East Midlands, West Midland and Cross Country.
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the passenger growth on the (a) Plymouth to Bristol, (b) Plymouth to Birmingham, (c) Plymouth to London and (d) Exeter to Waterloo railway lines was in each year between 1994 and 2005. [63431]
Derek Twigg: Information for years prior to 2002 is not available in the form requested. The figures for years from 2002 onwards are as follows:
| Year( 1) | Percentage passenger growth |
| (1)Rail reporting year which is April to March |
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how many (a) members of departmental staff and (b) external consultants were employed to research and write the North East regional planning assessment for the railway; [68876]
(2) what the total cost was of (a) preparing and (b) producing the North East regional planning assessment. [68877]
Derek Twigg: The preparation and writing of the draft North East regional planning assessment (RPA) was carried out by a single consultancy firm procured by the Strategic Rail Authority at a fee cost of £224,997 (including VAT). Data for the exact number of consultants employed are not available.
A number of SRA, and subsequently Department for Transport (DfT) staff supported the development and production of the published RPA, but were not solely dedicated to this task. SRA and DfT staff costs for the RPA work alone are therefore not available. However, it is estimated that around 15 per cent. of a full-time DfT post (plus formerly 25 per cent. of a full-time SRA post) was spent supporting this work, with additional administrative support.
The total cost to date of publication of the RPA by the Department is £6,903 (including VAT).
Regional Transport Boards
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) whether the meetings of each regional transport (a) board and (b) forum are open to the public; [69548]
(2) if he will list the members of each regional transport (a) board and (b) forum; [69549]
(3) to whom the regional transport board or forum is accountable in each of the English regions. [69550]
Dr. Ladyman: It is for individual regions to consider what structures to put in place to consider transport matters. The membership, meeting arrangements and accountability of these bodies are also matters for individual regions, but will generally depend on their allotted functions, which may vary; for example developing the draft regional transport strategy or preparing advice on regional funding allocations and providing a consultation mechanism for these processes.
Road Accidents
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many vehicle accidents occurred on A roads in (a) Hampshire and (b) England in each year
since 1990; and how many (i) fatalities and (ii) serious injuries there were as a result in each year. [69675]
Dr. Ladyman: The number of personal injury road accidents reported to the police on A roads in (a) Hampshire (excluding the unitary authorities of Southampton, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight) and (b) England and the resulting fatalities and serious injuries in each year from 1990 to 2004 (the latest year for which figures are available) are given in the table.
| Accidents, fatalities and serious injuries in Hampshire (excluding unitary authorities) and England on A roads: 1990 to 2004 | ||||||
| Accidents | Fatalities | Serious injuries | ||||
| Hampshire | England | Hampshire | England | Hampshire | England | |
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