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11 July 2007 : Column 1482W—continued

Transport

Bus Services: North West Region

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much was spent by her Department on bus subsidy in the north-west of England in the last 12 months, broken down by constituency. [147087]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department provides grants to local transport authorities through the Rural Bus Subsidy Grant, Rural and Urban Bus Challenge and Kickstart schemes. A total of £7.853 million was paid under these schemes to local authorities in the north-west region in the financial year 2006-07. The Department also provides Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) directly to operators of local bus services. We estimate that BSOG payments to operators in the north-west region total around £55 million annually. In addition, the majority of local authority support for bus services is funded from the Government's unhypothecated Revenue Support Grant and from other sources.


11 July 2007 : Column 1483W

The Department does not hold information in a form that would enable these figures to be broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Databases: Parking

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether there is a national record of parking areas. [148448]

Ms Rosie Winterton: As far as I am aware, there is no comprehensive and accurate national record of parking areas. However, Transport Direct is creating a database of off-street publicly accessible parking for Great Britain which can be viewed at

Departments: Private Finance Initiative

Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the total cost is of all private finance initiative projects for which her Department has responsibility completed since 1997; and what the projected cost is of such projects commissioned or under way. [148021]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The HM Treasury website provides updated details (on a six monthly basis) of awarded PFI projects overseen by the Department of Transport. The project details include the date of financial close, total capital value and the annual unitary charge payment. This information is available at:

The Treasury website includes unitary charge payments up until 2033-34. The following projects overseen by the Department for Transport involve payments beyond that date:

Docklands Light Railway Woolwich e xtension

A1 Darrington to Dishforth

Doncaster interchange

The forecasts of future payments are subject to the performance of the private sector contractor.

The unitary charge payments represent repayments of the capital (sum of the capital spend) of the project and will also frequently include inflation, service provision, capital repayments and major refurbishments.

Railway Stations: Chorley

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if she will make a statement on progress being made on the development of a railway station at Buckshaw Village, Chorley; [148991]


11 July 2007 : Column 1484W

(2) whether an agreement has been reached with rail operating companies for trains to stop at the proposed railway station at Buckshaw Village, Chorley; and if she will make a statement; [148992]

(3) when she expects work (a) to begin and (b) to be completed on the construction of the railway station at Buckshaw Village, Chorley. [148993]

Mr. Tom Harris: This is a project that is being led by Lancashire county council with Network Rail. I understand that Lancashire county council has yet to finalise the detailed project plan which would provide dates for key milestones, but that it is planning for the station to be operational by 2008 provided the funding is in place.

Railways

Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the average load factor is, expressed as a percentage of seats occupied, on passenger trains running on the UK rail network. [146294]

Mr. Tom Harris: The Department only holds data pertaining to the morning and evening peaks for commuter services in London and the south-east, which is in the following table. It is not possible to disaggregate seats occupied from total capacity as data are not held in this form.

Total load factor
Percentage
Train operator In am peak In pm peak Aggregated peaks

one

82.0

75.2

78.7

C2C

78.0

72.3

75.3

Chiltern

72.5

61.5

66.9

Southeastern

84.1

67.4

75.9

Stagecoach South West Trains

89.3

70.6

80.0

Southern

82.5

70.8

77.0

First Great Western

90.0

71.5

81.1

First Capital Connect

80.0

74.3

77.1

Silverlink

72.8

65.1

68.9


The table is based on annual counts undertaken by train operators during autumn 2006. Data for other train operators running on the UK rail network are not available.

Treasury

Crosby Review

Mr. Binley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects the report of the Crosby review of identity management to be published. [148643]

Andy Burnham: Sir James Crosby has been asked to deliver his report to Ministers by late summer.


11 July 2007 : Column 1485W

Departments: Hotels

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) pursuant to the answer of 20 June 2007, Official Report, column 1879W, on Departments: hotels, if he will set out the figures for 2006-07 for (a) HM Treasury, (b) the Debt Management Office, (c) the Royal Mint and (d) the Office of Government Commerce, including subsistence, as in the answer of 16 October 2006, Official Report, column 1060W, on departmental expenditure; [147097]

(2) how much was spent by (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its non-departmental public bodies on hotel and other privately-provided accommodation (i) in the UK and (ii) abroad for (A) Ministers, (B) staff and (C) others in 2006-07. [147114]

David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much was spent on overnight accommodation by civil servants within his Department's areas of responsibilities in the last 12 months. [149057]

Angela Eagle: The available information is presented in the following table. As explained in the answer given by the then Financial Secretary (John Healey) on 16( )October 2006, in most cases, the bodies' accounting systems do not record accommodation costs separately, so the figures are for subsistence, which includes accommodation and associated allowances for meals. Therefore further analysis could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Information relating to overseas travel by Ministers is published on an annual basis. Information for the period 2 May 1997 to 31 March 2006 is available in the Library of the House. Information for the financial year 2006-07 is currently being compiled and is due to be published shortly.

All travel and subsistence is conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Ministerial Code, Travel by Ministers and the Civil Service Management Code.


11 July 2007 : Column 1486W
Department/Agency/NDPB Type of Travel 2006-07 (£000)

HM Treasury(1)

UK

98

Overseas

308

Debt Management Office

UK

3

Overseas

3

Office of Government Commerce

UK

476

Overseas

20

OGCbuying.solutions(2)

All

284

Valuation Office Agency(3)

All

633

HM Revenue and Customs(4)

UK

14,100

Overseas

376

Royal Mint(5)

All

401

National Savings and Investments

All

121

Office for National Statistics(6)

UK

713

Overseas

78

Government Actuary's Department

UK

7

Overseas

15

Statistics Commission

UK

2

Overseas

1

(1) Treasury figures include Ministers, staff and other persons. (2 )OGCbuying.solutions figures are for accommodation only, excluding meals, including both UK and overseas accommodation. (3 )The Valuation Office Agency figure represents costs of UK and overseas accommodation only. Figures previously provided for preceding years have included subsistence and other supplementary costs which were unable to be separated except at disproportionate cost. The figure of £525,000 for 2006-07 provided on 20 June was subject to audit adjustments, which have now been agreed. (4 )The HM Revenue and Customs figures are for accommodation only, unlike figures previously reported for earlier years, where the method for recording such expenditure made disaggregating accommodation expenditure from subsistence possible only at disproportionate cost. (5) The amount for The Royal Mint includes both UK and overseas subsistence. (6 )The Office for National Statistics figures represent accommodation only. Figures previously reported for preceding years included travel and subsistence, as well as accommodation. The method of recording expenditure made disaggregating accommodation possible at disproportionate cost only.

Football Association: World Cup

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what occasions (a) he or his predecessor, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) representatives of his Department met the Football Association to discuss an English bid for the 2018 World Cup (i) before the feasibility study by his Department and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport into holding the World Cup in England began and (ii) while the study was in progress; and what such meetings have taken place since the study was completed. [148963]

Andy Burnham: Treasury officials met the Football Association between January 2006 and February 2007 following the announcement that a feasibility study into hosting a football World Cup would be conducted.

Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such meetings.

NHS: Finance

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether HM Treasury received recommendations from the Audit Commission in 2006 on changes to the resource accounting and budgeting system in the NHS. [147118]

Andy Burnham: The ‘Audit Commission Review of the NHS Financial Management and Accounting Regime' was published on 26 July 2006.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidance was given to the Department of Health on changes to the resource accounting and budgeting system in NHS trusts in 2006-07. [147119]

Andy Burnham: The Department of Health announced the reversal of RAB deductions and the replacement of cash brokerage with a formal system of loans for NHS trusts on 28 March 2007. This was done in agreement with HM Treasury.


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