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29 Nov 2007 : Column 597W—continued
Culture, Media and Sport
Commonwealth Games: Glasgow
Mr. Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what lottery funding will be made available for the hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. [168328]
Mr. Sutcliffe: National Lottery grant-making decisions are made independently of Government by the lottery distributing bodies. I understand that Glasgow's Candidate City File for the 2014 Games set out the various revenue streams that were expected and that this did not include any revenue from the lottery.
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what increase in jobs he expects the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games to bring to Scotland in each year from 2007. [169441]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Sport in Scotland, including the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and its legacy, is the responsibility of the Scottish Executive. We are, however, committed to working with the bid partners to ensure a successful Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Digital Broadcasting
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) which areas (a) can receive all digital multiplex signals, (b) have partial coverage and (c) are unable to receive any digital multiplex signals via digital terrestrial television in each region; [168996]
(2) what percentage of each region is covered by each digital broadcasting multiplex signal on (a) terrestrial, (b) cable and (c) satellite broadcasting platforms; [169048]
(3) what the percentage coverage was of each digital broadcasting multiplex signal in each region broadcasting from each digital platform in each of the last five years. [169049]
James Purnell: The matters raised are the responsibility of the Office of Communications (Ofcom), as independent regulator for the communications sector. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Football: Tickets
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent representations he has received about the pricing regime of Premier League football tickets for the 2007-08 season; and if he will make a statement. [169536]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I have received correspondence regarding ticket pricing from a wide number of stakeholders including supporters groups, clubs and fans.
Ticket pricing is a matter for the football authorities and it would not be right for Government to seek to intervene in these issues directly.
However, there is a clear role for Government to play in acting as a ‘critical friend’ to football, and in seeking to facilitate useful debates around areas of concern across all levels of sport.
The Government are committed to ensuring that all football clubs are run in the best possible way and that they remain a focal point of their local community and I will continue to highlight the concerns of supporters in my regular discussion with the football authorities.
Olympics
Official Gifts
Tom Brake: To ask the Minister for the Olympics if she will place in the Library a list of gifts and hospitality given by members of the Olympic Delivery Authority; and if she will make a statement. [169374]
Tessa Jowell: The Olympic Delivery Authority intends to publish its gifts and hospitality register early next year.
Olympic Delivery Authority: Business Interests
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Minister for the Olympics if she will place in the Library the latest copy of the Olympic Delivery Authority's register of (a) interests and (b) gifts and hospitality. [168400]
Tessa Jowell [holding answer 26 November 2007]: The Olympic Delivery Authority intends to publish its first (a) register of Board members’ interests, and (b) its gifts and hospitality register, early next year.
Transport
Bus Services: Concessions
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps she is taking to ensure that buses in all areas have smart-card readers when smart cards for nation-wide pensioners travel concessions are introduced. [169477]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government have no immediate plans to fund the roll-out of smart readers on buses. It would not be practical to require smart readers to be installed in buses in all areas in time for April 2008 when the national bus concession is introduced.
Operators and local authorities are free to work together to implement full smart ticketing and we fully support such action. There are substantial advantages to bus operators and local authorities in going ‘smart’—reduced fraud and much better data on how many concessionary journeys are being made, which will help with reimbursement arrangements.
Crossrail Line
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether it is planned that a single operator will run all passenger trains on Crossrail tracks. [168661]
Mr. Tom Harris: I refer the hon. Member to section 8, ‘Crossrail Operations’, of the Heads of Terms for Crossrail that has been agreed between the Department for Transport and Transport for London, which was placed in the House Library by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport on 26 November and which states:
“Agreement has not yet been reached as to whether there will be a single Crossrail TOC [Train Operating Company] or more than one Crossrail TOC”
Crossrail Line: Paddington Station
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions she has had on the interaction of new Crossrail services and existing commuter rail links running into Paddington. [168662]
Mr. Tom Harris:
The Crossrail services will subsume inner suburban services, and there will be complementary longer distance commuter services. Stops by express trains are not affected. There has been
consultation by a variety of means, including: during project development; as part of the hybrid bill process; through the Crossrail Railway Stakeholders’ Forum that I chair and by the Office of Rail Regulation on the application for access rights for Crossrail services contained in an access option.
Emergency Services: Motorways
Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate she has made of the number of occasions on which emergency vehicles have used the hard shoulder for access to an incident on each of the motorways in the North West Region in the last 12 months. [169512]
Mr. Tom Harris: The Department for Transport does not hold records in relation to the number of occasions that vehicles, belonging to the Emergency Services, have used the motorway hard-shoulder in the North West for access to incidents.
Gatwick Express
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what involvement her Department has had in the alteration of timetables and services on the Gatwick Express over the last 12 months. [168689]
Mr. Tom Harris: There have been no alterations to Gatwick Express services during the last 12 months. The department has, however, agreed a Deed of Amendment to the Southern franchise, which, among other things, will provide for the extension of some morning and evening peak Gatwick Express services from and to Brighton. These changes are scheduled for introduction in December 2008.
Railways: Fares
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what conclusions she has reached following her Department's review of unregulated rail fares; and if she will make a statement. [164636]
Mr. Tom Harris: The Department has not undertaken a formal review of unregulated fares. Unregulated fares are a matter for train operators. The Department continues to listen to the representations of Passenger Focus and has invited them to take a greater role in commenting on the specification of future franchises.
Railways: Safety Measures
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport with reference to the answer of 20 December 2005, Official Report, column 2932W, when she expects the Rail Safety Standards Board research into passenger emergency evacuation procedures to be published. [168921]
Mr. Tom Harris: The Rail Safety and Standards Board published its research on 31 July 2007. The findings are available on the RSSB website www.rssb.co.uk.
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether any people have died as a result of using emergency egress windows as a means of escape following a train crash. [168927]
Mr. Tom Harris: The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is unaware of any people having died as a result of using designated emergency egress windows as a means of escape following a train crash.
Road Traffic: Schools
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of her Department’s spending has been devoted to measures to reduce the amount of traffic generated by the school run in each of the last five years. [164630]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The development of measures to reduce the amount of traffic generated by the school run does not fall neatly into boxes that enable us to say what proportion of the Department’s spending has been devoted to these in each of the last five years. This is because, in addition to the expenditure on centrally managed programmes, a considerable amount of expenditure is committed by local highway authorities that receive funding from the Department through the Local Transport Plan (LTP) settlement and determine their own priorities.
The Mayor of London also receives funding from the Department via a total transport grant through Transport for London (TfL) and bus operators receive Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) which makes bus services cheaper. The DfT integrated block element of the LTP settlement was worth £547 million in 2006-07, while TfL received £2.4 billion and bus service operators received £380 million in BSOG.
In addition we can, however, identify the amount of funding allocated for regional and local authority school travel advisers through the “Travelling to School” project, for ‘Links to Schools’ and for other initiatives such as ‘Bike It’ that promote and support cycling to school. (Prior to April 2004, the Department awarded a number of bursaries to local authorities to enable them to employ school travel plan co-ordinators rather than school travel advisers.) The levels of expenditure in each of the last five years are shown as follows:
| £ million | |||
| Regional and LASTAs | ‘Links to schools’ | Bike it | |
We know that local authorities spent the following amounts of funding received through their LTP settlement on providing ‘Safe Routes to School’. The figure for 2006-07 has still to be audited.
| £ million | |
| ‘Safe routes to school’ | |
This provides only a partial picture. Other funding allocated to local authorities through the LTP settlement will have been allocated to measures that will contribute to reducing traffic generated by the school run but they are not designed solely for this purpose. Examples will include other road safety and traffic calming schemes, road maintenance and cycle lanes.
Roads: Repairs and Maintenance
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if she will list each motorway and trunk road building project that has been submitted for the targeted programme of improvement scheme; and which schemes (a) have been (i) successful and (ii) unsuccessful and (b) are still being considered. [163226]
Mr. Tom Harris: The following schemes have been approved for entry to the Targeted Programme of Improvements (TPI), since its inception. The six schemes shown as “suspended” were not prioritised for funding by the regions within their Regional Funding Allocations to 2015-16.
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