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5 Feb 2007 : Column 682W—continued


5 Feb 2007 : Column 683W

Official Cars

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the charge was to each Government Department for hire of official cars in 2005-06; and what the total man hours were of the drivers in that year. [118740]

Dr. Ladyman: This information can be provided only at a disproportionate cost.

Road Safety: Novice Drivers

Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will set targets on reducing death and injury by young and novice drivers as part of his Department's road safety strategy. [118870]

Dr. Ladyman: The Department is concerned to reduce deaths and injury among the whole population. We do not plan now to add new targets to the 2010 targets that were set out in the March 2000 strategy: “Tomorrow's Roads: Safe for Everyone”. However, young and novice drivers are a key theme of the second three-year review of the strategy which we aim to publish shortly.

Roads: Summer Heat

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to prevent disintegration of roads from the sun's heat during the summer. [118926]

Dr. Ladyman: The Highways Agency is progressively re-surfacing the English trunk road network with deformation resisting material. Over 30 per cent. has been completed to date. To combat temperature rise in future years, a more deformation resistant base material has also recently been introduced into Highway Agency standards, to be used in combination with the surfacing when appropriate.

Maintenance of local roads in England is the responsibility of the local highway authority. The Department endorses Well Maintained Highways, the code of practice for local authority highway management (TSO, July 2005) published by the UK Roads Board. This advises local highway authorities to take account of the possibility of higher temperatures affecting the UK's local highway network in the future.

The code contains guidance for local authorities on dealing with the effect of high temperatures on road surfaces. Authorities are advised to be aware, from inventory, inspection and other information, of the relative risks to parts of their network from excessive heat, and to establish priorities for treatment based on this assessment.

Taxis: Children

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many accidents involving taxis with children as passengers there have been in (a) Scotland and (b) Great Britain in the last 10 years. [118203]


5 Feb 2007 : Column 684W

Dr. Ladyman: The number of reported personal injury road accidents involving taxis with child (aged 0-15) passenger casualties in (a) Scotland and (b) Great Britain in the last 10 years is given as follows:

Number of accidents involving taxis with child (aged 0-15) passenger casualties: 1996-2005
(a) Scotland (b) Great Britain

1996

15

99

1997

7

82

1998

17

85

1999

11

102

2000

10

117

2001

11

82

2002

10

68

2003

17

76

2004

9

67

2005(1)

8

93

(1) Includes private hire cars from 2005

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what factors were taken into account when deciding to exempt taxis from the new regulations governing the use of child car seats. [118204]

Dr. Ladyman: Following public consultation on the proposals to update the seat belt wearing legislation, we accepted that that it would be unreasonable to expect taxis or private hire vehicles always to have the correct number and size of child restraints and that those travelling with children cannot always provide their own. The terms of Directive 2003/20/EC, which updates the seat belt wearing requirements established by Directive 1991/671/EEC, allow an exemption for taxis where the correct child seat is not available.

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will break down the number of accidents involving taxis with children as passengers in the last 10 years in (a) Scotland and (b) Great Britain by the vehicle body type. [118820]

Dr. Ladyman: The number of reported personal injury road accidents involving taxis with child (aged 0-15) passenger casualties in (a) Scotland and (b) Great Britain in each of the last 10 years broken down by taxi body type is given as follows:


5 Feb 2007 : Column 685W
Estate Saloon Taxi( 1) Unknown body type

(a) Scotland

1996

1

6

4

4

1997

0

7

0

0

1998

1

3

9

4

1999

0

5

4

2

2000

1

6

1

2

2001

2

1

3

5

2002

1

4

3

2

2003

1

5

6

5

2004

1

3

4

1

2005

0

5

3

0

(b) Great Britain

1996

2

40

32

25

1997

3

35

31

13

1998

6

31

35

13

1999

8

47

30

17

2000

11

56

31

19

2001

12

31

26

13

2002

9

22

30

7

2003

10

26

23

17

2004

9

30

15

13

2005

16

37

20

20

(1 )Purpose built taxi

Transport Innovation Fund

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the Transport Innovation Fund bid from Shropshire County Council; and if he will make a statement. [118978]

Dr. Ladyman: No bid has been received from Shropshire county council for the Transport Innovation Fund. However, in October 2005 Shropshire bid for funding to support initial scheme development for TIF, and again for further development funding in July 2006. In both cases the bids were successful.

Transport: Finance

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the regional funding allocation process that included regional priority road schemes in 2006 is to be repeated in (a) 2007-08 and (b) future years. [117963]

Dr. Ladyman: In his response of 6 July 2006 to the advice from the regions on regional funding allocations, the Secretary of State said that he expected to seek further formal advice on regional transport priorities within the next two years. That remains the case. In the interim the Department expects to request ad hoc advice from the regions from time to time on individual scheme decisions as necessary. The exercise included public transport schemes as well as road schemes.

Defence

Aldermaston

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the projected cost is of the AWE development plan at Aldermaston; what the expected duration of the project is; how expenditure has been committed to the project to date; and if he will make a statement. [117533]

Mr. Ingram: The Government will continue to make the necessary investment at AWE Aldermaston to ensure that it has the facilities and skills to meet our current and possible future requirements. We will continue to make the necessary investment in the establishment for as long as these requirements endure. The Government announced on 19 July 2005, Official Report, column 59WS, that investment at AWE would increase by an average of some £350 million per year for the years up
5 Feb 2007 : Column 686W
to and including 2007-08. Details of investment at AWE for the period beyond 2007-08 will be determined over the next year, following this year's comprehensive spending review.

As the White Paper, ‘The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent’ published in December 2006, made clear, further investment at AWE will be necessary and early in the next decade the costs of AWE are likely—at their peak—to be the equivalent of about 3 per cent. of the current defence budget.

Boarding School Allowance

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in respect of how many children (a) Army, (b) Air Force and (c) Royal Navy personnel received boarding school allowance in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what the percentage change was in each year. [118888]

Derek Twigg: The number of children benefiting from continuity of education allowance are only available for the last three years. This is due to the ongoing work to transfer data from legacy administrative systems to Joint Personnel Administration.

Spring term Service children benefiting from CEA Percentage change from previous year

2004

Royal Navy

1,377

n/a

Army

4,280

n/a

Royal Air Force

2,372

n/a

Total

8,029

n/a

2005

Royal Navy

1,377

0

Army

4,289

+0.22

Royal Air Force

2,220

-6.85

Total

7,886

-1.8

2006

Royal Navy

1,410

+2.41

Army

4,092

-4.82

Royal Air Force

2,113

-5.11

Total

7,615

-3.56

n/a = Not available

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