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4 July 2006 : Column 924W—continued
Number Plate Cloning
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many car number plate cloning incidents were recorded in (a) Yeovil constituency, (b) Somerset and (c) the South West region in each of the last five years. [82185]
Dr. Ladyman: The information requested is not available.
Offshore Wind Farms
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many individuals in the Maritime Coastguard Agency are working on responses to offshore wind farm applications; and what estimate he has made of the length of time which will elapse between receipt of and response to outstanding applications. [81456]
Dr. Ladyman: The consideration of the maritime safety element of offshore wind farm applications is the responsibility of one individual in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), consulting with colleagues on matters of technical detail, as necessary.
The MCA has recently adopted a target to process applications within 90 days of receipt.
Post Office Network Services
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what services (a) his Department and (b) its associated public bodies (i) make available and (ii) have made available in the last five years through the Post Office network; through how many outlets the service is or was made available; and how many relevant transactions were undertaken in each case in the most recent year for which figures are available. [79196]
Gillian Merron: (i) A Vehicle Re-licensing (car tax renewal) and a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) service is provided over the counter in approximately 4,600 Motor Vehicle Licensing (MVL) Post OfficeÂ(r) branches. Postal applications are handled in 120 of these branches.
A Photocard Driving Licence Premium Service, checking application forms and supporting identity documents, is provided in approximately 740 Post OfficeÂ(r) branches.
A range of vehicle and driving licence forms, leaflets and booklets are held in all 14,000 branches.
(ii) Over the last five years Post Office Ltd/DVLA has introduced a new electronic system for both vehicle re-licensing and making a Statutory Off-Road Notification (SORN) at MVL Post OfficeÂ(r) branches through reading barcodes on application forms/registration certificates.
Since August 2004, when re-licensing their vehicle or making a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN), customers have been able to notify a change of tax class into the disabled tax class at MVL Post OfficeÂ(r) branches.
In March 2004, DVLA and Post Office Ltd reached commercial agreement to extend the network of offices able to offer the vehicle re-licensing service by over 600 mainly rural Post OfficeÂ(r) branches.
In March 2006 DVLA and Post Office Ltd reached commercial agreement to extend the network of offices able to offer the Photocard Driving Licence Premium Service by over 40 Post OfficeÂ(r) branches.
In the last financial year approximately 38 million vehicle licences were issued by the Post Office and over 2.3 million SORNs were received. Of these, over 160,000 customers changed their vehicle into the disabled tax class.
In the last financial year over 650,000 customers used the Photocard Driving Licence Premium Service at Post OfficeÂ(r) branches.
Railways
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the average subsidy per passenger kilometre is for lines in the London region. [82088]
Derek Twigg: This information is available in the Office of Rail Regulation publication “National Rail Trends”, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of rail journeys he estimates were made by people living in the London area in 2005-06. [82089]
Derek Twigg: Based on data from the National Travel Survey, it is estimated that 36 per cent. of rail journeys in Great Britain in 2004 were made by residents of greater London.
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of rail journeys are started or ended in London. [82091]
Derek Twigg: The information is published in the National Rail Trends Yearbook editions, which are available in the House Library.
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress Arriva Trains Wales is making in refurbishing (a) 142, (b) 143, (c) 150 and (d) 158 class units; and if he will make a statement. [80633]
Derek Twigg: Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) last refurbished the class 142s and 143s between 2000 and 2002, which included external painting, installation of new seats, floors, body panels and handles being fitted. Currently eight of the fleet are being repainted to complete the refurbishment of this class.
ATW’s class 150s were last refurbished between 2000 and 2002, which included installing new seats, floors and body panels. Since then, 13 of these trains
have been added to ATW. ATW are currently refurbishing these. To date, nine have been completed, with the remaining four being completed by the end of August 2006.
In relation to ATW’s class 158s, ATW have said that there are currently no plans to refurbish this rolling stock.
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 8 May 2006, Official Report, column 21W, on railways, what class of rolling stock will be transferred to Arriva Trains Wales on the Swansea to Cardiff route in December 2006; who the manufacturer is; who the previous operating company was; and what the age of the stock is. [80725]
Derek Twigg: The vehicles to be operated by Arriva Train Wales on the Swansea to Cardiff route are three car class 175 units, built by Alstom. These vehicles were previously sub-leased by ATW to Trans-Pennine Express. The stock is around six years old.
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of rail freight passing through London crosses Battersea railway bridge. [82087]
Derek Twigg: The Department does not hold information regarding the number of freight train services on specific lines of the rail network.
Inquiries of this nature should be directed to Network Rail.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he has taken to safeguard transport corridors through land controlled by the British Railways Board. [82340]
Derek Twigg: Details of the Department for Transport's guidance to BRB (Residuary) Ltd. on the disposal of property can be seen on the company's website at http://www.brb.gov.uk/land_disposal.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the residual value of the property held by the British Railways Board. [82341]
Derek Twigg: Details of the value of property held by BRB (Residuary) Ltd. is contained in the annual report of the company which can be seen on the BRB (R) website at http://www.brb.gov.uk/annual_report/annual-report-2005.
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what representations his Department has made to encourage the use of Sunday rail services in areas where it would be beneficial for the promotion of local tourism and leisure activities; and what special grants are available for additional Sunday rail services in such areas. [80805]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Government do not make any specific grants to encourage the use of Sunday rail services, but are investing heavily in rail and this is yielding results in terms of additional passengers on Sundays and other days of the week. The Government specify the minimum level of services through the franchising process.
Road Accidents (Somerset)
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) road accident fatalities and (b) personal injury road accidents there were in (i) Yeovil constituency and (ii) Somerset in each year since 1997. [82187]
Dr. Ladyman: The number of (a) road accident fatalities and (b) personal injury road accidents there were in (i) Yeovil constituency and (ii) Somerset in each year from 1997 to 2005 is shown in the table. Constituency level data for 2005 are currently unavailable.
| Number of (a) road accident fatalities and (b) personal injury road accidents in (i) Yeovil constituency and (ii) Somerset: 1997-2005 | ||||
| Somerset | Yeovil constituency | |||
| Fatalities | Accidents | Fatalities | Accidents | |
Road Maintenance
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the cost per mile of maintenance of motorways and trunk roads was in each of the maintenance areas of the Highways Agency in each of the last five years. [81089]
Dr. Ladyman: The following table shows expenditure on road maintenance (on the strategic road network) per network mile since 2000-01. Figures are based on published annual reports. Information on a regional basis is not available.
The table also includes information on spending per lane mile from 2001-02, since this provides a more meaningful comparison.
| Spending per mile (£) | Spending per lane mile (£) | |
| (1) Information on lane miles managed by HA is readily available from 2001-02 only. | ||
Road Pricing
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects the first road pricing pilot to be operational. [82206]
Dr. Ladyman:
The Department for Transport expects to receive the first scheme proposals from local authorities for road pricing pathfinder schemes next year, with pricing pathfinders possibly becoming operational in four to five years.
The Government also recently announced that they would allocate £10 million for demonstration projects to help us understand more about how road pricing schemes would operate in practice. A Prior Information Notice, which alerts companies that may be interested in bidding for the work, will be released shortly. We expect that the demonstration projects will commence in spring 2007, and that they will run for around one to two years.
Road Safety
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of road fatalities in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency in 2005; what the average was for London boroughs; and if he will make a statement [81517]
Dr. Ladyman: The average number of fatalities in London boroughs in 2005 was 6. Constituency level data for 2005 is currently unavailable.
Road Tolls
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the rate of tolling in pence per (a) mile and (b) kilometre in current prices that would be required to reduce congestion on the motorway network. [81585]
Dr. Ladyman: The appropriate level of charges for any national road pricing or tolling scheme covering the motorway network would depend on a wide range of factors. It is not currently possible to estimate what price levels would be appropriate.
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