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Road Safety
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many road accidents were caused (a) directly and (b) indirectly by the driver using a mobile phone in the last period for which figures are available. [85414]
Dr. Ladyman: The information available relates to factors that are judged by the police as having contributed to a road accident in which someone was injured. The number of personal injury road accidents reported to the police that have "Driver using mobile phone" assigned as a contributory factor in 2005 was 429.
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) fatalities and (b) injuries in road accidents there were in (i) Sunderland city council area and (ii) Houghton and Washington, East constituency in each year since 1997. [85423]
Dr. Ladyman: The number of (a) fatalities and (b) injuries in personal injury road accidents reported to the police in (i) Sunderland local authority and (ii) Houghton and Washington, East constituency in each year from 1997 to 2005 are shown in the table. Constituency level data for 2005 are not yet available.
| Sunderland local authority | Houghton and Washington, East constituency | |||
| (a) Killed | (b) Injured | (a) Killed | (b) Injured | |
Roads
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which road repair project being carried out by the Highways Agency has been allocated the most funding. [85490]
Dr. Ladyman: The M25 Holmesdale Tunnel Refurbishment project has a total forecasted cost of £70 million. It comprises repairs to the existing road, the tunnel structure and associated mechanical and electrical equipment.
Roadside Checks
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many roadside checks have been carried out on defective brakes during each of the past 24 months; what the nature is of such tests; and what conclusions he has drawn from the results. [85167]
Dr. Ladyman: The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) is responsible for roadside enforcement. Greater detail on the results of their work is published in their Effectiveness Report which is available on-line at www.vosa.gov.uk.
The following table is based on financial year and amalgamates roadside checks and fleet checks. The data cannot be broken down further without disproportionate cost.
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |
Percentage of vehicle encounters that resulted in such prohibitions |
Although visual inspection will identify the majority of potential defects, VOSA staff can also utilise temperature checks and roller brake tester equipment.
Brake defects are in the top 10 fail items for heavy goods vehicles, trailers and passenger service vehicles at roadside and fleet checks and annual test. Defects in braking systems are a concern.
Stansted Airport
Mr. Brazier: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions he has had with the new owners of the British Airports Authority on the continued development of a second runway at Stansted airport; and if he will make a statement. [86266]
Gillian Merron: The Secretary of State for Transport has met the chairman of Grupo Ferrovial SA to discuss their plans for BAA.
On 6 July, ADI, the consortium led by Ferrovial, confirmed its commitment to developing a second runway at Stansted as soon as possible although it would review the costs and plans for the second runway. A press release on this announcement can be found on BAA’s website.
Transport Direct
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the value for money of the Transport Direct portal. [85818]
Dr. Ladyman: The original Business Case for Transport Direct recorded three key value for money measures:
Achieve one million user sessions in the first year of service.
Achieve 10 million user sessions by the end of 2006.
10 per cent. of users reassess their travel habits as a result of the information provided by Transport Direct.
The one millionth user session was achieved ten months after soft-launch of the service (soft-launched in July 2004, achieved in May 2005)
We are on course to achieve our ten millionth user session by the end of 2006.
Early results of user surveys have indicated that 64 per cent. of those who completed our surveys were considering a change of travel mode preference.
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment has been made of the impact of the Transport Direct portal on journey decisions, including modal shift. [85820]
Dr. Ladyman: The portal service includes a self-completion feedback questionnaire that has been designed to form part of the independent evaluation framework for the portal. The analysis of the first 1,002 forms (December 2005) indicates that:
64 per cent. of users who responded indicated a change of original travel mode preference for at least part of the journey.
In 33 per cent. of cases the respondent had made the journey previously and of these 51 per cent. indicated a change in original mode preference.
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many visitor hits Transport Direct has received; and what its advertising expenditure has been since it became operational. [85821]
Dr. Ladyman: Transport Direct usage is recorded in “user sessions”. A user session is defined as:
“One continuous dialogue with the Transport Direct Portal through one browser window”.”
By the end of June 2006 Transport Direct had recorded 6,055,702 user sessions. The current rate is around 150,000 user sessions per week, viewing an average of seven to eight pages each.
Advertising costs across the Financial Years 2004-05 to 2005-06 were £1,063,000.
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport why the default setting for the cost of car travel on the Transport Direct portal is for fuel costs. [85822]
Dr. Ladyman: The portal provides the user with two choices for assessing the costs of car travel. One is ‘fuel costs’; including exceptional costs such as tolls, ferry charges and congestion charges, and the other is ‘total running costs’ which take into account the cost of owning a car.
Transport Direct’s purpose is to give users an impartial series of travel options and to enable them to select choices that meet their needs. Market research strongly indicates that motorists are overwhelmingly interested in seeing information about the ‘point of use’ of costs of their car. Therefore the default is to display the fuel costs and other direct costs. Showing full costs as the default would result in this functionality not being used by the majority of motorists, thus negating any potential effect on their travel choice.
Users do have the option to select an estimate of the total running costs. This is based on advice and information provided by the major motoring organisations and provides a figure which reflects the total cost of motoring, on a per mile basis. If the user chooses this option, then fuel costs, the exceptional costs and the total ownership costs are displayed.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much it cost to construct www.transportdirect.info; and how much it has cost to operate per month on average. [82210]
Dr. Ladyman: The information is as follows:
Construction of www.transportdirect.info.
Overall Capital spend on the Transport Direct portal Design, Build and Operate (DBO) contract has been as follows:
| Period | £ million |
These figures represent the sums paid to Atos Origin (the DBO contractor) for all aspects of the DBO contract excluding non-Capital elements.
The DBO contract has been just one part of the overall Transport Direct Programme. Whilst the Portal DBO contract cost more than we originally estimated, the overall Programme budget under spent.
Operational costs are in the region of £225,000-£250,000 per calendar month, while data supply costs are in the region of £100,000 per month.
Vehicle Excise Duty Licences
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many vehicle excise duty licences were paid in each band, including goods vehicles, for the most recently available year; and how many licences in each band were paid for by (a) private individuals and (b) incorporated businesses. [83959]
Dr. Ladyman: DVLA estimates the number of vehicle licences issued within each band for the “Private and Light Goods” tax class, as the following table:
| Estimate of licences issued for Private and Light Goods vehicles, 2004-05 | |
| Class | Licences issued |
Additionally, 554,153 licences were issued for Heavy Goods Vehicles in 2004-05. No statistical information is available to indicate how many licences in each band were paid for by (a) private individuals and (b) incorporated businesses.
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