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29 Nov 2006 : Column 688W—continued
http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem/press/fact-sheets.jsp.
Halliburton
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many private finance initiative and public private partnership contracts with his Department and its agencies have been won by Halliburton or its subsidiaries in each year since 1997; what the terms were of each contract; and if he will make a statement. [101224]
Jim Fitzpatrick: There are no PFI/PPP contracts between the Department (or its agencies) and Halliburton and its subsidiaries after 1997.
Medical Research Council
Mr. Burstow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what proportion of the Medical Research
Council's funding in each of the last five years was spent on research into pain management. [106047]
Malcolm Wicks: The percentage of the Medical Research Council (MRC's) total expenditure on research which has relevance to pain management for each of the last five years is:
| Percentage | |
Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total capital value is of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by his Department which has reached financial close; over what period repayments will take place; and what the total cost of repayment will be. [103518]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The DTI holds one PFI contract, this is with its IT provider Fujitsu. The financial close for this service was June 1999. I am not able to provide financial information set against this contract as it is commercially sensitive.
Regional Development Agencies
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to extend the powers and responsibilities of regional development agencies; and if he will make a statement. [104141]
Margaret Hodge: The 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR 2007) will identify whether investments and reforms are needed—looking across all areas of Government expenditure—to ensure that the UK is best placed to face the global challenge. One of the policy reviews linking into CSR 2007 is the Sub-national Economic Development and Regeneration Review. This provides an opportunity for Government to ensure that the regional development agencies have the appropriate powers and responsibilities to meet the long term challenges. The review will include a thorough assessment of the RDAs and will look at ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of sub-national structures.
Renewable Energy
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what he has assessed as the highest feasible percentage of energy which can be derived from each renewable source; what steps would be necessary to achieve the figure in each case; by what date he estimates each figure could be achieved; and if he will make a statement. [101730]
Malcolm Wicks:
The “Renewables Innovation Review”, conducted jointly by the DTI and the Carbon Trust and which reported in February 2004 looked at
the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the different renewable technologies from the perspective of meeting the 2010 target (10 per cent. of electricity being generated from eligible renewable sources by 2010) and on the longer term renewables aspiration (20 per cent. by 2020) and our 2050 carbon reduction goal. The review also considered mechanisms needed to bring each technology forward. A copy of the review can be found on the DTI website at:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/policy/govemment-renewable-energy-policy/renewables-innovation-review/pagel5308.html
In order to help bring on emerging renewable technologies, the Government are currently consulting on a number of proposals to make changes to the Renewables Obligation. These include the idea of “technology banding”, which would allow emerging technologies to obtain more funding under the Renewables Obligation than the more established technologies.
A copy of the consultation document can be found at:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page34162.html
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to extend the Renewables Obligation after 2015; and if he will make a statement. [101733]
Malcolm Wicks: The Renewables Obligation already runs to 2027. There are no plans to extend it beyond that period. Current Obligation levels are set out to 2015-16. The Government have committed, in the recent Energy Review, to raise Obligation levels from their current maximum of 15.4 per cent. to 20 per cent. on a headroom basis.
Smart Meters
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps he has taken to promote the use of smart meters in households to measure power consumption in real-time. [103820]
Malcolm Wicks: Giving consumers information about their energy consumption should help them to manage it better, saving them money and reducing carbon emissions. For this reason, the Government issued a consultation document “Energy Billing and Metering: Changing Customer Behaviour: An Energy Review Consultation” on 14 November. The Government also announced earlier this year that they would co-fund with companies an energy demand reduction pilot study of the use of smart meters and associated feedback devices. This will start shortly.
Supply2.gov.uk
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many small businesses have used the customer support helpdesk since its launch on the supply2.gov.uk website. [103324]
Margaret Hodge: From its launch on 31 March 2006 and up to the end of October, the supply2.gov.uk customer support help desk received 9390 e-mails and 391 phone calls from suppliers.
Workplace Bullying
Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures his Department is taking to eradicate bullying in the workplace. [104526]
Jim Fitzpatrick [holding answer 28 November 2006]: DTI’s Partnership at Work Fund has made available £1 million to a project led by Amicus to address the issue of bullying in the workplace. The project partners include BT, Legal and General, BAE Systems and Royal Mail. The project promotes best practice and workplace initiatives to tackle bullying.
Legislation protects workers from the most serious kinds of bullying, for instance in cases of discrimination or harassment. The Government publish guidance booklets on how this legislation can be used, and ACAS provides a nationwide telephone advice line offering assistance to employers and employees on bullying and other employment issues.
These measures support the Government’s policy aim that workers should be able to work without fear of being bullied or harassed by employers, fellow employees or anyone else.
Transport
Drink-Driving
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to reduce drinking and driving in the UK. [103293]
Dr. Ladyman: The Government’s priority for reducing drinking and driving is through a combination of effective law enforcement, maintaining a very tough penalties regime and continuing investment in high-profile national publicity campaigns to discourage drink driving.
To this end, we have given the police new powers to carry out evidential roadside breath testing, subject to type approval of appropriate equipment. This is supported by a number of other measures in the Road Safety Act 2006 which are designed to deter drink driving and reduce re-offending.
These include enabling powers to require serious, including repeat, offenders to retake the driving test at the end of their period of disqualification; to improve the operation of the drink drive rehabilitation scheme; to close certain loopholes in the law relating to high risk offenders; and to establish a statutory alcohol ignition interlock programme.
We will shortly be launching the THINK! 2006 Christmas drink drive publicity campaign jointly with the Association of Chief Police Officers. This will be supported by an extended police enforcement campaign throughout December to ensure that publicity and enforcement activity is co-ordinated to have the greatest impact on driver behaviour.
Driving Offences (Cambridgeshire)
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of drivers in Cambridgeshire driving without (a) tax, (b) insurance and (c) a driving licence. [105910]
Dr. Ladyman: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 20 November 2006, Official Report, column 36W, to the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Hands) for overall estimates. There are no separate estimates for Cambridgeshire alone.
Foreign Hauliers
Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the distance-based charging system for foreign hauliers. [104571]
Dr. Ladyman: The Government are continuing to investigate options for distance-based road charging, which would include the charging of goods vehicles. The Department has now launched a programme of research into the practical application of distance-based charging with the publication of a Prior Information Notice on 18 July this year inviting potential partners to submit expressions of interest for a programme of demonstrations.
In addition, we will continue to monitor developments in those European countries that already charge lorries according to the distance travelled, including Germany and Switzerland.
Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of digital tachographs in preventing owners of foreign vehicles from infringing the Working Time Directive. [104573]
Dr. Ladyman: Digital tachographs became mandatory for all new vehicles (in-scope of the EU drivers’ hours rules) entering into service from 1 May this year and it is still too early to assess their full impact. However, as for the most part, compliance with the limits set out in the Road Transport Working Time Directive (2002/15/EC) can only be determined over lengthy “reference periods”, it is unlikely that the digital tachograph generated data available with foreign vehicles/drivers at the roadside would be sufficient for enforcement of those limits. Enforcers would also need to establish when the “reference period” started and whether the driver was able to take advantage of any of the available derogations.
Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what penalties can be imposed on owners of foreign vehicles who commit traffic offences in the UK. [105824]
Dr. Ladyman: The full range of road traffic penalties is applicable to owners of foreign vehicles if they commit offences in Great Britain. The same is true of Northern Ireland although not all the relevant offences and penalties there are exactly equivalent to Great Britain. However, provided their vehicles were compliant with the law of the country in which they were registered, the owners would not be subject to prosecution for offences relating, for example, to vehicle excise duty, insurance, and roadworthiness.
At the present time only persons holding GB or Northern Ireland licences are eligible for an offer of a fixed penalty in respect of an endorsable offence; others have to be dealt with by a court. Provisions are
made in the Road Safety Act 2006 for these drivers to be allowed to pay a “deposit” in lieu of a fixed penalty, having the equivalent effect. There is a further provision that would allow enforcement authorities to issue a fixed penalty to a non-GB licence holder if they can assure themselves, from any driver record that may be held at DVLA, that the driver in question does not have a record of endorsements that would render him liable to disqualification if he were dealt with by a court.
These provisions can be implemented only when all the necessary administrative arrangements are in place.
Greater Western Franchise
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport why the service level commitment for the Greater Western Franchise excludes (a) Wargrave and Shiplake on the Henley-on-Thames line and (b) Cookham on the Marlow line. [104302]
Mr. Tom Harris: The service level commitment for the Greater Western franchise does not exclude Wargrave, Shiplake or Cookham stations on the Henley-on-Thames and Marlow branches.
Rail Services
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much public money was spent per head of population on rail services in each region of the UK in each of the last five years. [105874]
Mr. Timms: I have been asked to reply.
Total Expenditure on Services (TES) spending by country and region is available in PESA 2006 (cm 6811) Chapter 7. These regional spending statistics use the concept of identifiable spending where Government spending is allocated to the region or country that benefits from the spending. Some spending cannot be allocated to a region or country as it is for the benefit of the UK as a whole (e.g. defence spending). Table 7.11 presents country and regional spending per head for 2000-01 to 2005-06 on Transport on this identifiable, who benefits, basis.
We do not currently publish these regional analyses at a sub-function level. We have however, recently released the underlying CRA database that underlies the Chapter 7 tables. This is available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/economic_data_and_tools/finance_spending_statistics/pes_cra/country_region.cfm
Sirens
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidelines his Department has issued on the use of sirens by emergency ambulance vehicle operators during the quiet hours. [100497]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I have been asked to reply.
No guidelines have been issued by the Department on this subject. Use of sirens on emergency ambulance vehicles is a local matter and national health service ambulance trusts may have their own policy and guidelines on this issue.
Speed Cameras
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many speed cameras there are in Romford; and what percentage this represents of the total number of speed cameras in the London borough of Havering. [105982]
Dr. Ladyman: The Department does not hold information on the number of speed camera sites in Romford. This information may be available from the London Safety Camera Partnership.
Working Time Directive
Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many hauliers have been prosecuted for infringements of the Working Time Directive in (a) the West Midlands and (b) the UK in the last 12 months. [105826]
Dr. Ladyman: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 28 November 2006, Official Report, columns 528-9W, given to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael).
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