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10 Sep 2007 : Column 1946Wcontinued
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much was spent by her Department on flowers in the last 12 months. [153212]
Jim Fitzpatrick: In the last 12 months the Department and its agencies spent £2,029 on flowers. This related to purchases made for the victims of the letter bomb explosion at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency HQ in Swansea, the Royal opening of a new wing of the Air Accident Investigation Branch in Farnborough and as part of our employee welfare programme: flowers are sent to staff following a serious, personal and often unexpected event. This would include a serious illness, major accident or bereavement.
This excludes spend by the Highways Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency as the requested information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much was spent by her Department on taxis in the last 12 months. [153213]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Department for Transport Central, and three of the agencies spent £208,092 on taxis in the last 12 months. The remaining agencies do not record taxi fares separately from other travel costs and the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost. All travel is undertaken in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Ministerial Code, and the Civil Service Management Code.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much was spent by her Department on (a) staff training and (b) communication training in the last 12 months. [153206]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The total expenditure by the Department on staff training in the last 12 months was £16,659,462. This figure includes training on communication skills as the Department does not record communication training separately.
A large proportion of expenditure relates to training for the recently established Highways Agency Traffic Officer Service.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much was spent by her Department on first class train tickets in the last 12 months. [153210]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Travel expenditure is not recorded by class of ticket for most of the Department and the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost. All travel is undertaken in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Management Code.
Justine Greening:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) where the air pollution receptors were located which provided data that have been used to model the environmental impact on air pollution as
part of the Project for the Sustainable Development of Heathrow; and if she will make a statement; [155114]
(2) how many air pollution receptors are in place to monitor air pollution in and around Heathrow airport; where those receptors are located; and if she will make a statement; [155087]
(3) how many air pollution receptors were in place to monitor air pollution in and around Heathrow airport in each year since 2000; where those receptors were located; and if she will make a statement. [155088]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The modelling of air pollution is based on data collected from a number of monitoring sites in and around Heathrow. Their location is shown in Figure 2.1 of the Report of the Airport Air Quality Technical Panels published by the Department in July 2006, which is available on the Department's website at:
Data from these sites, in some cases since 1993, are set out in Annex 8 to the report. This also identifies new sites added in 2005 on the recommendation of the technical panels (see chapter 2) to ensure a robust data set to validate the modelling.
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when her Department expects to launch the public consultation on the expansion of Heathrow airport; and if she will make a statement. [155111]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Government are committed to a public consultation later this year on the future development of Heathrow airport. This was confirmed in the Progress Report on the Future of Air Transport White Paper in December 2006. A statement will be made when the consultation is launched.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Harry Cohen) of 25 July 2007, Official Report, column 1070W, on Metronet finance, what estimate she has made of the extent of the public finance commitment as a result of Metronet entering administration; and what proportion of the total her Department expects to pay. [154922]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Transport for London and London Underground continue to discuss the best strategy for taking Metronet out of Administration with the PPP Administrators, taking into account all the associated financial implications, in accordance with their respective duties. In advance of their conclusion, it would be inappropriate to comment on the potential public finance impacts.
Mr. Carmichael:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many vehicle exhaust emissions tests were carried out in (a) Birmingham, (b) Bristol, (c) Canterbury, (d) Glasgow, (e) Middlesbrough, (f) Swansea and (g) Westminster in each of the last 10 years; how many motorists were issued with fixed
penalty notices in each area in each year because their car did not meet the necessary standards; and what total value of fines was issued by each local authority in each year. [154855]
Jim Fitzpatrick: These emissions checks are a matter for local authorities. The Department for Transport does not hold the information requested.
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when she expects to publish the results of the Attitudes to Noise from Aviation sources in England study; and if she will make a statement. [154856]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Provisional findings have been submitted and are being subjected to independent review by experts. This review is not yet complete, but I anticipate that the results of this study will be available by the end of this year.
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidance her Department has given to local authorities on improving access to public transport for disabled people. [155108]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The full guidance on Local Transport Plans: second edition, published by the Department in January 2006, contains advice on how local authorities can meet the needs of disabled people, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of estimated payments under her Departments private finance initiative contracts is projected to be spent on road constructions in each year between 2008 and 2019. [152470]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department is unable to make such projections, because the proportion of PFI payments to be spent on road construction will depend on the development and procurement of PFI contracts in future, and on contractor performance.
The HM Treasury website provides updated details (on a six monthly basis) of awarded PFI projects overseen by the Department for Transport. The project details include the awarding authority, date of financial close, total capital value and the annual unitary charge payment. This information is available at:
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 and major refurbishment.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much the Highways Agency spent on road improvements in each region in each of the last five years. [154923]
Mr. Tom Harris: The Highways Agencys reporting systems do not provide information on a regional basis.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many miles of road per region are the responsibility of the Highways Agency to maintain. [154924]
Mr. Tom Harris: The Highways Agency is responsible for maintaining a total of 4493.8 miles of road, of which:
Highways Agency region | Route length (Miles) |
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of Category A emergency ambulance dispatches reached patients within the Governments target of eight minutes in (a) urban areas and (b) rural areas in the latest period for which figures are available. [155036]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department does not classify ambulance trusts as urban or rural, and therefore performance data are not reported against these categories.
All ambulance trusts are required to meet the same national response time standards irrespective of location. Category A calls (those presenting conditions that may be immediately life threatening) should be responded to within eight minutes in 75 per cent. of cases and Category B calls (those conditions that are serious but not immediately life threatening) should be responded to within 19 minutes in 95 per cent. of cases.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which hospital trusts are not fulfilling the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines on breastfeeding information for new mothers. [154909]
Mr. Bradshaw: We do not have the information on the number of hospital trusts implementing the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines. However, NICE has recently consulted on new draft guidance on maternal and child nutrition including its recommendation to increase breastfeeding. The final guidance will be published later this year.
The Department supports the NICE recommendations and expects that the national health service trusts implement the NICE recommendations.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the Broomfield hospital private finance initiative project will receive its final approval to proceed; and if he will make a statement. [154962]
Mr. Bradshaw: The full business case for the £140 million Broomfield hospital private finance initiative scheme for Mid Essex Hospitals Services NHS Trust has been submitted for approval to the Department by East of England Strategic Health Authority. A decision will be announced in due course.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total expenditure on research into (a) Hodgkin's lymphoma and (b) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was in each year since 1997 from (i) his Department's Research and Development budget and (ii) the Medical Research Council. [155031]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department does not collect expenditure data at the level of detail required. Over the last 10 years, the main part of the Department's research and development budget has been allocated to and managed by national health service organisations. These organisations account for their use of the allocations they receive from the Department in an annual research and development report. The reports identify total, aggregated expenditure on national priority areas, including cancer. Details of individual projects supported in the NHS, including those concerned with site-specific cancers, can be found on the national research register at
The Medical Research Council (MRC), one of the main agencies through which the Government support medical and clinical research, is an independent body which receives its grant in aid from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
MRC expenditure on research on all forms of lymphoma including Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, for the years for which figures are available, is shown in the table.
£ million | |
Implementation of the Department's research strategy, Best Research for Best Health, will result in an expansion of our research programmes and in significant new funding opportunities for health research. In particular, the Hammersmith and St.
Mary's and Imperial College Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), the Oxford BRC and the University College London Hospital BRC, propose to undertake research on both Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as part of broader-based research themes to which the Department has allocated a total of £12.5 million over five years.
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will require primary care trusts to undertake a comprehensive assessment of local foot health needs in conjunction with local authorities; [154947]
(2) what assessment he has made of the ease of access by vulnerable and elderly persons to chiropody services on the NHS; [154953]
(3) how many NHS chiropody clinics have closed in (a) Wirral, (b) Merseyside, (c) the North West and (d) England in the last five years; [154954]
(4) what the funding per head of the population for chiropody services was in England in the latest period for which figures are available. [155099]
Mr. Bradshaw: No central assessment has been carried out and there are no plans to require primary care trusts (PCTs) to undertake an assessment of local foot health needs. It is up to PCTs to assess the needs of their local population and to determine what proportion of their resources are spent on commissioning chiropody services based on those needs. Strategic health authorities are responsible for ensuring that PCTs fulfil this duty.
We know healthy feet have a huge impact on the quality of life and we expect PCTs to provide high quality chiropody services. Guidance for access to these services is included in the national service frameworks for older people, diabetes, and long-term conditions. Chiropody is also included in practice based commissioning: early wins and top tips, and the White Paper, Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services.
Information about how much funding PCTs allocate to chiropody services and the number of chiropody clinics are not collected centrally.
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