Commission for Integrated Transport
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much it has cost to run the Commission for Integrated Transport in each of the last four years. [82215]
Gillian Merron: The principal spend of the Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) is on the research programme which underpins its policy advice. The costs of this for the last four years are set out in the following table, together with the Commission’s other running costs. Both figures also cover the research and running costs of the Motorists Forum, established by CfIT in January 2000, at Ministers’ request.
| £ | ||
| Programme costs | Running costs (pay and non-pay) | |
Cyclist Numbers
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of people who travel by bicycle to work in London each day. [79397]
Derek Twigg: Transport for London (TfL) estimate that 216,000 work related cycling trips are made each day. However, TfL is in the process of developing a project to track businesses with travel plans called iTRACE, which in future will provide much more accurate information on the issue of cycling to work. This is expected to be operational by 2008.
Departmental Publications
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make it his policy to make copies of deposited papers available in the (a) Vote Office and (b) Printed Paper Office at the same time as copies are deposited in the Library; and if he will make a statement. [81246]
Gillian Merron: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend, the Leader of the House (Mr. Straw) on 3 July 2006, Official Report, column 729W.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the draft Bills produced by his Department since October 2005; how many were examined or are planned to be examined by (a) a departmental Select Committee or a combination of Select Committees and (b) a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament; and if he will make a statement. [81640]
Gillian Merron: The Department for Transport has not produced any draft Bills since October 2005.
Announcements on future legislation and future draft legislation which will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny will be indicated in the Queen’s Speech.
Departmental Travel
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has to ensure that all flights undertaken by Ministers and officials in his Department are carbon neutral; and if he will make a statement. [81392]
Gillian Merron: All central Government ministerial and official air travel is being offset from 1 April 2006. Departmental aviation emissions are calculated on an annual basis and subsequently offset through payments to a central fund. The fund purchases Certified Emissions Reductions credits from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with sustainable development benefits, located in developing countries.
Judicial Review
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on what occasions an (a) individual and (b) organisation has applied for a judicial review of decisions of his Department in each year since 1997; and what the outcome was of each case where proceedings have been completed. [80490]
Gillian Merron: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
M11
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he has taken to examine the merits of introducing a toll on the M11. [82319]
Dr. Ladyman: The use of a tolled lane on the M11 was considered and discussed with BAA Plc as part of the modelling of surface access infrastructure supporting Stansted's second runway. This idea was dismissed at an early stage. No further discussions on this issue have taken place.
Olympics
Mr. Andy Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which officials in his Department (a) are responsible for Olympics-related activity and (b) sit on the Inter-Departmental Steering Group for the Olympics. [81566]
Gillian Merron: Lucy Chadwick, Director of Regional and Local Transport Delivery Directorate, leads on Olympic-related issues within the Department for Transport and sits on the Inter-Departmental Steering Group.
Ports
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much it cost to conduct the review of the management of ports in local authority ownership in England and Wales. [82216]
Dr. Ladyman: This review was carried out over two years using in house resources. Exact figures are unavailable, however it is estimated to have cost in the region of £70,000. This includes publication costs. The manpower element of this, £56,332, cover all municipal ports issues not just the review.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much has been budgeted for the cost of the ports policy review. [82217]
Dr. Ladyman: The total expenditure to date on the ports policy review has been £200,000 on two consultants' studies contributing to the evidence-base; £203,000 internal staff costs and £19,000 launch costs. A further £150,000 has been budgeted for in-house costs for the completion of the exercise, with £90,000 provision for external costs.
Post Office Contracts
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport for which services (a) his Department and (b) its associated public bodies hold contracts with the Post Office; and what the (i) start and (ii) termination date is of each contract. [81536]
Gillian Merron: 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) branches. Postal applications are handled in 120 of these offices.
A photo card driving licence premium service, checking application forms and supporting identity documents, is provided in approximately 740 branches.
A range of vehicle and driving licence forms, leaflets and booklets are held in all 14,000 branches.
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.
The vehicles’ re-licensing contract started inApril 2002 and terminates on 31 March 2007.
The premium service contract started in November 2002 and terminates on 31 March 2007.
Negotiations are under way with Post Office Ltd. to continue both services from April 2007 onwards.
Railways
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of rail and underground journeys are made within London. [82090]
Derek Twigg: Statistics on rail travel in and between regions are published in National Rail Trends Yearbook editions, which are available in the House Library.
Data from the London Underground Rolling Origin-Destination Survey show that 99.2 per cent. of London underground journeys are made within London.
Information on other city underground systems are published in the Public Transport Statistics Bulletin, which is available in the House Library.
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many checks at ports on commercial vehicles were carried out by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency in each region of the UK in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06; how many infringements were found; how many vehicles were prohibited for overloading; and what other infringements were recorded. [82024]
Dr. Ladyman: The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) is not able to supply detailed statistics on the exact number of checks carried out in or around individual ports. The majority of enforcement is carried out by intercepting traffic on arterial roads leading to or from a port.
Details of the number of vehicle checks carried out in 2004-05 and the number of vehicles prohibited is published in VOSA’s Effectiveness Report which is available in the Libraries of the House. The 2005-06 report is to be published shortly.
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many new railway stations have been built in London and the South East since 1995. [82086]
Derek Twigg: The answer includes stations that have been re-opened with new buildings.
Silverlink Trains network: Shepherds Bush and Imperial Wharf are under construction.
West Brompton had two new platforms opened in 1999.
C2C network: Chafford Hundred (1995) and West Ham (1999)
One network, Braintree Freeport (1999)
South West Trains network: Chandlers Ford (2003)
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he expects all trains to be accessible to disabled people by 2020. [82209]
Derek Twigg: The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 requires that all trains are subject to rail vehicle accessibility regulations by no later than 1 January 2020. We are currently developing the necessary regulations and will be consulting on these in due course.
The Secretary of State will, nevertheless, still have the power to grant exemptions from the regulations, even if these run past the “end date”. Parliament accepted the necessity of this during the passage of the Bill for services, such as heritage and tourist railways and tramways, which might not be able to meet accessibility requirements in full due to engineering and other constraints.
Road Pricing
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what measures will be put in place under the proposed road pricing pilot to differentiate between those participating and not participating in the pilot for the purpose of measures taken to compensate those subject to road pricing. [82436]
Dr. Ladyman: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to him on 25 May 2006, Official Report,column 1954W.
Sustainable Transport Towns
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to his Department's press release of 22 December 2004, which of the shortlisted towns won the competition to be sustainable transport towns. [82207]
Gillian Merron: Details of the Sustainable Travel Towns Initiative, including the three successful towns, can be found on the Department’s website at www.dft.gov.uk.
Thames Gateway
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what infrastructure spending he is planning to support the development of the Thames Gateway. [82320]
Dr. Ladyman: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of Tuesday 4 July 2006, Official Report, column 929W to the hon. Member for North Cornwall.
Transport Links (Yorkshire)
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to improve (a) road and (b) rail transportation links between the major towns and cities of Yorkshire. [77674]
Gillian Merron: The Department has made substantial investment in road transport related schemes in Yorkshire during the first local transport plan period (2001-06) and will sustain this investment throughout the second period, which runs until 2011. This includes significant investment by the Highways Agency on the motorway and trunk road network in the Yorkshire and Humber region over the last five years. This high level of investment is set to continue with, for example, the innovative £1.29 billion programme announced last year to reduce congestion on strategic routes in South and West Yorkshire.
To enable better forward planning, the Government in July last year announced three year regional funding allocations to 2007-08 and planning assumptions for 2008-09 to 2015-16, amounting to over £1 billion for the Yorkshire and Humber region. These cover major (greater than £5 million) local transport plan schemes and major Highways Agency schemes other than on those on roads of the greatest strategic national and international importance.
On rail investment, new services have been introduced between Sheffield and Leeds, and new rolling stock provided to increase capacity on routes in to Leeds and Bradford. In addition, the Secretary of State, through the rail re-franchising programme, has sought and will continue to seek improvements to rail links between the towns and cities of Yorkshire.
Wales
Severn Estuary Barrage
9. Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on a reappraisal of the proposal for a barrage in the Severn estuary. [81356]
Mr. Hain: Regular ones. Tidal energy, such as the Severn Barrage proposal, has huge potential to supply a significant proportion of the country's future energy needs and in turn make a significant contribution to our emissions reduction targets.
Antisocial Behaviour
12. Alun Michael: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the implementation in Wales of measures introduced to tackle antisocial behaviour. [81360]
Nick Ainger: Through measures such as those included in the Respect Action Plan, we are building on the progress we have already made against anti-social behaviour and are now working to tackle its root causes.
Agency Staff
Ms Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what average hourly rate was paid by his Department to each employment agency for staff employed through agencies in 2005-06. [81488]
Mr. Hain: The average hourly rates paid to employment agencies by the Wales Office in 2005-06 is as follows:
| £ | |
| Per hour | |
Correspondence
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales pursuant to the answer of 26 June 2006, Official Report, column 67W, on correspondence, what estimate he has made of the cost of answering the question; and if he will make a statement. [82631]
Mr. Hain: We do not record the staff time taken in replying to letters. To answer the earlier question, we would have needed to monitor staff time taken for a big enough sample of letters, from hon. Members and members of the public, over a long enough period, to give reasonably representative results. We estimated that the total cost of the exercise would exceed three days’ work and cost more than £600.
Departmental Publications
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what his practice is regarding meeting, discussions with and taking into account the views and opinions of (a) private individuals and (b) representatives of organisations when drawing up and framing legislation to be introduced by his Department; and if he will make a statement. [81653]
Mr. Hain: The Department always seeks a full range of views when drawing up and framing legislation. Consultation is a key part of the policy-making process; both informal and formal. The Wales Office was an early adopter of pre-legislative scrutiny and the national health service (Wales) Bill was scrutinised during the 2001-02 session. Since then, a further three Bills introduced by my Department were published in draft for consultation: the Public Audit (Wales) Bill; the Transport (Wales) Bill; and, the Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill. A public consultation has always been conducted in parallel with the pre-legislative scrutiny process. My Department has also introduced two further Bills. My Department had conducted a public consultation jointly with the Welsh Assembly on the principles underlying the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Bill, and as there was general support for the proposals, further scrutiny was not considered necessary, and would only have further delayed the legislation. The Government of Wales Bill, which is currently before the House, was introduced without pre-legislative scrutiny, because the proposals need to be implemented for the May 2007 Assembly elections. Extensive consultation was however undertaken on the White Paper, which was published well in advance of this Bill being introduced. All of the Department's formal consultations also abide by the Code of Conduct on Consultation.
Departmental Travel
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to ensure that all flights undertaken by Ministers and officials in his Department are carbon neutral; and if he will make a statement. [81398]
Mr. Hain: All central Government ministerial and official air travel is being offset from 1 April 2006. Departmental aviation emissions are calculated on an annual basis and subsequently offset through payments to a central fund. The fund purchases Certified Emissions Reductions credits from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with sustainable development benefits, located in developing countries.
Energy Review
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what impact he expects the outcome of the energy review will have in Wales. [81839]
Mr.
Hain: The Energy Review will provide a
framework for the energy policies of HMG and Assembly Government to
meet the four goals set out by the 2003 Energy White
Paper: To put ourselves on a path to cut the UK’s CO2
emissions by some 60 per cent. by about 2050, with real progress
by 2020; to maintain the reliability of energy supplies; to promote
competitive markets in the UK and beyond, helping to raise the rate of
sustainable economic growth and to improve our productivity; and to
ensure that every home is adequately and affordably
heated.
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