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Wales

Departments: Carbon Emissions

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what methodology is used by his Department to account for its carbon emissions. [140794]

Mr. Hain: The Carbon Trust completed an audit of the Wales Office energy and water usage in May 2006, using total expenditure on utilities to calculate the volume of emissions for the year.

For travel by air and road our carbon emissions were calculated using Pure, the clean planet trust calculator available on their website.

Departments: Official Cars

Mr. Simon: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what make and model of car (a) he and (b) each Minister in his Department selected as their official ministerial car; and what criteria were used when making the decision in each case. [141993]

Mr. Hain: The Wales Office has a Toyota Prius in London and another in Cardiff for ministerial use.

These cars were chosen as they have low carbon emissions.

Departments: Official Residences

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the official ministerial residences allocated to Ministers in his Department; and what the total annual cost is of running each. [141962]

Mr. Hain: The Wales Office does not have any official ministerial residences.


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Floods

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent discussions he has had with the First Minister on flood defences. [140991]

Mr. Hain: Around 170,000 properties in Wales are at risk from flooding. Flood and coastal risk management is a devolved function. I understand that current policy in Wales is to reduce flood and coastal erosion risk to people, property and natural environment by encouraging the provision of defences and flood warnings, and discouraging inappropriate development in areas at risk. I also understand that Welsh Ministers are currently implementing new flood risk management arrangements to enable improved responses to the increased risk presented by climate change.

Work carried out by the Environment Agency and Welsh local authorities to manage these risks is supported financially by the Welsh Assembly Government, who have increased their funding for flood and coastal defence this year to over £30 million.

Prince Charles

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) what discussions he has had with the First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government on celebrations for the 50(th) anniversary of Prince Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales; [141334]

(2) what public funds his Department plans to make available for celebrations to mark the 50(th) anniversary of Prince Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales; [141333]

(3) what celebrations his Department is planning for the 50(th) anniversary of Prince Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales. [141332]

Mr. Hain: 2019 will mark the 50(th) anniversary. No decisions have been taken as yet.

Railways: Standards

Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent (a) discussions he has had with and (b) representations he has made to (i) First Great Western trains and (ii) Network Rail on train service performance between South Wales and London Paddington. [140819]

Mr. Hain My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State and I take a close interest in the performance of train services between London and South Wales, and have met the service providers to discuss issues affecting passengers in Wales. Following recent suggestions that some of the services might be terminated at Port Talbot I spoke to the Managing Director of First Great Western, who assured me that this would happen only in the most extreme circumstances. I also welcomed Network Rail’s announcement that it planned to hold a full investigation into the overrunning engineering works that disrupted these services.


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Leader of the House

Departments: Official Residences

Mrs. May: To ask the Leader of the House if he will list the official ministerial residences allocated to him and his deputy; and what the total annual cost is of running each. [141955]

Mr. Straw: None.

EC Law

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Leader of the House if he will bring forward plans to improve scrutiny of EU legislation. [140990]

Mr. Straw: As I have indicated in response to earlier questions, most recently to the hon. Lady on 26 April 2007, Official Report, column 1203W, discussions have been taking place on this issue following the report from the Modernisation Select Committee in 2005. These discussions are continuing.

Transport

Bridges: Tolls

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which bridges in the UK charge tolls to traffic; and what tolls are charged in each case to (a) cars, (b) heavy goods vehicles and (c) buses. [141348]

Dr. Ladyman: The information requested is available on the Department for Transport's website:

The website is currently being updated and the revised information will be available on Thursday, 14 June. Copies of the new information will be placed in the House Libraries on that date.

British Transport Police

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 24 May 2007, Official Report, column 1415W, to the hon. Member for Swansea, East (Mrs. James) on the British Transport Police, if he will consider the merits of compiling statistics on the number of (a) police officers and (b) police community support officers employed by British Transport Police. [141786]

Mr. Tom Harris: This information is held by the British Transport Police and is available from the force on request.

Cycling: Highway Code

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions his Department has held with cycling organisations since the publication of the latest version of the Highway Code. [141116]

Dr. Ladyman: Ministers and officials of the Department for Transport regularly meet and discuss various issues informally with a number of cycling organisations. There have been many such discussions since the current version of the Highway Code was first published in 1999.

Since the proposed revisions to the Highway Code were laid before Parliament on 28 March, DfT officials
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met representatives of CTC to discuss their concerns about certain cycling rules within the Code on 9 May. There have also been discussions by telephone and e-mail between DfT officials and CTC representatives on this issue.

Driving: Mobile Phones

Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps his Department is taking to deter drivers from using mobile phones when driving. [141437]

Dr. Ladyman: The Road Safety Act 2006 increased the penalty for using a hand-held mobile phone while driving to three penalty points and discretionary disqualification on top of the existing fine of up to £1,000 (£2,500 in the case of the driver of a goods vehicle or a bus/coach). If a fixed penalty is accepted the penalty is three points and a £60 fine. The new penalty came into effect on 27 February 2007. If the police see poor driving and find a driver distracted by a call on a hands-free mobile phone, then they can prosecute the offence of not being in a position to have proper control of a vehicle. The same penalties apply. The police have stepped up their enforcement of these offences.

In addition, extensive publicity is being run as part of the Department's THINK! road safety campaign. The campaign to publicise the higher penalty was launched in January 2007, using a mix of television, press, radio and online advertising and which included a TV advertisement which features a new message aimed at those who call people who are driving.

Galileo Project

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his policy is on (a) military and (b) civilian applications of the Galileo Satellite Navigation System. [140501]

Dr. Ladyman: Galileo has been defined and agreed as a civil system since the project's inception. While Galileo's open service, like that of GPS, can be accessed by all and therefore could be used by military forces, Galileo remains a civil programme under civil control. This has repeatedly been confirmed by the EU Transport Council; most recently in its October 2006 Council Conclusions.

Great Western Trains: Standards

Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent discussions he has had with First Great Western on improving performance. [140818]

Mr. Tom Harris: Ministers last met First Great Western and Network Rail to discuss performance on 24 May 2007. The meeting on 24 May was specifically held to discuss FGW performance in the light of performance of FGW and Network Rail against their respective targets in the joint performance improvement plan (“JPIP”).


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Lorries

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to (a) receive and (b) publish his response to the desk study report by Heriot Watt University and the Transport Research Laboratory on longer heavier vehicles. [141411]

Dr. Ladyman: I expect to receive the report by October and it should be published in due course. I have no plans to publish a response but will consider the issues carefully.

M60: Road Signs and Markings

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the vehicles of Highways Agency staff on the M60 were provided with matrix signals to instruct traffic; and when they will be authorised to use them. [141466]

Dr. Ladyman: Variable message panels were fitted as standard to Traffic Officer Service vehicles prior to patrols starting on the M60 in January 2006. They are already authorised to display some messages to instruct traffic.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when Highways Agency traffic officers will be able to use the scrolling arrows provided in their vehicles to direct traffic on the M60. [141482]

Dr. Ladyman: The Highways Agency carefully considered the use of scrolling arrows as one of the legends which can be displayed on the variable message panel fitted to the Traffic Officer vehicles. The agency has decided that it is inappropriate to use scrolling arrows at this time. This decision will be kept under review as the Traffic Officer Service develops.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport under what (a) section of the Highways Act and (b) associated regulations police officers on the M60 use the scrolling arrow traffic signs in their vehicles to direct traffic. [141483]

Dr. Ladyman: The use of light emitting devices is regulated under the Road Traffic Act 1988 by the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989. Regulation 13 of these regulations permits vehicles used for police purposes to be fitted with a lamp or illuminated sign that emits a flashing light. Scrolling arrow traffic signs are considered to emit a flashing light.

Ministers: Official Cars

Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is on the vehicle excise duty bands of Ministerial cars; and into which bands cars presently allocated to Ministers fall. [141341]

Dr. Ladyman: The Prime Ministers guidance, Travel by Ministers and the Ministerial Code, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House, sets out which cars may be provided by the Government Car and Despatch Agency for official ministerial use.


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The cars available to Ministers and their vehicle excise duty bands are detailed in the following table.

Make/model VED band

Rover 75 Connoisseur

F

Mondeo Zetec

F

Jaguar XJ TDVi Executive

F

Toyota Prius T3

B

Vectra Design CDTi

F

Honda Civic ES hybrid

B

Mondeo Zetec TDCi

F

Vauxhall Omega Elite

F


Motorcycles

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many off-road leisure facilities are available for the use of mini moto users for recreational purposes. [139676]

Mr. Caborn: I have been asked to reply.

It is impossible to quantify the number of off-road leisure facilities available for use by mini-bikes in the UK. Anecdotal evidence indicates that a number of commercial kart tracks (there are around 100 such tracks in the UK) are offering their facilities for such use. However safety concerns mean the Auto-Cycle Union (ACU)—the national governing body for motorcycle sport—will not licence such tracks and therefore ascertaining how many offer such services is simply not possible.

Motorways: Road Traffic Control

Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on progress on the roll-out of hard shoulder running. [142070]

Dr. Ladyman: The M42 Active Traffic Management pilot project, including hard shoulder running, became fully operational in September 2006. The Highways Agency is currently evaluating the performance of the pilot project and, while it is too early to draw definite conclusions, the initial results are encouraging. I expect to receive an evaluation of the pilot project from the Highways Agency later this year. The agency is continuing its thorough review of the network to identify potential locations that might benefit.


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