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31 Jan 2008 : Column 539W—continued

Members: Correspondence

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the Minister of State will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire dated 4 December 2007 on heavy lorries on country lanes (reference: RW/JF/027469/07). [183431]

Jim Fitzpatrick: A reply has been sent to the hon. Member today.

Merseytravel: Per Capita Costs

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much funding per head of population was allocated to Merseytravel in each year since 1993, expressed in (a) cash and (b) real terms. [181281]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government have specifically allocated funding for rail franchise payments, local transport capital funding and some other transport revenue grants to Merseytravel (as shown in tables 1 to 3 respectively, with totals in table 4). Rail figures prior to franchising (i.e. prior to 1997-98) are not readily available.

All four tables show the cash allocated, the cash per head of population (based on the Office for National Statistics’ population figure of 1,367,000 for 2005) and the funding per head of population expressed in terms of 1987 prices (using the retail price index).

Most revenue support for Merseytravel for public transport (other than rail franchise payments) is included in the revenue support grant allocated to the district councils, on which Merseytravel levies. This is not included in the figures because the Government does not specify how much of the revenue support for the district councils should be for Merseytravel.

31 Jan 2008 : Column 540W

Table 1: Rail franchise payments
		(£ per head)
	Cash (£000)	Cash	Funding 1987 prices
1997-98	72,025	52.69	33.45
1998-99	65,702	48.06	29.50
1999-2000	60,389	44.18	26.71
2000-01	58,331	42.67	25.06
2001-02	88,161	64.49	37.21
2002-03	90,845	66.46	37.72
2003-04	91,731	67.1	37.01
2004-05	83,111	60.8	32.56
2005-06	72,561	53.08	27.65
2006-07	86,915	63.58	32.10
2007-08	90,337	66.08	31.99

Table 2: Local t ransport c apital a llocations to Merseytravel
		(£ per head)
	Cash (£000)	Cash	Funding 1987 prices
1993-94	14,908	10.91	7.75
1994-95	6,812	4.98	3.46
1995-96	8,626	6.31	4.23
1996-97	5,679	4.15	2.12
1997-98	9,466	6.92	4.40
1998-99	7,190	5.26	3.23
1999-2000	8,423	6.16	3.73
2000-01	8,286	6.06	3.56
2001-02	15,800	11.56	6.67
2002-03	18,343	13.42	7.62
2003-04	21,797	15.95	8.79
2004-05	30,574	22.37	11.98
2005-06	19,679	14.40	7.50
2006-07	17,012	12.44	6.28
2007-08	18,903	13.83	6.69

Table 3: Specific revenue grants for buses and cycling
		(£ per head)
	Cash (£000)	Cash	Funding 1987 prices
1993 to 1997-98	0	0.00	0.00
1998-99	83	0.06	0.04
1999-2000	83	0.06	0.04
2000-01	83	0.06	0.04
2001-02	320	0.23	0.14
2002-03	1,021	0.75	0.42
2003-04	1,259	0.92	0.51
2004-05	1,117	0.82	0.44
2005-06	415	0.30	0.16
2006-07	327	0.24	0.12
2007-08	685	0.50	0.24

Table 4: Total funding allocations to Merseytravel
		(£ per head)
	Cash (£000)	Cash	Funding 1987 prices
1997-98	81,491	59.61	37.85
1998-99	72,975	53.38	32.77
1999-2000	68,895	50.40	30.47
2000-01	66,700	48.79	28.65
2001-02	104,281	76.28	44.02
2002-03	110,209	80.62	45.76
2003-04	114,787	83.97	46.32
2004-05	114,802	83.98	44.98
2005-06	92,655	67.78	35.30
2006-07	104,254	76.26	38.50
2007-08	109,925	80.41	38.92

31 Jan 2008 : Column 541W

Motor Vehicles: Excise Duties

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many cars were impounded and destroyed for failure to pay vehicle excise duty in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland in each of the last six years. [183504]

Jim Fitzpatrick: Unlicensed vehicles on a public road are clamped. If a release fee and either a tax disc or surety payment is not made within 24 hours, the vehicles are impounded. If fees are not paid, the vehicle will be disposed of either by it being scrapped, recycled to the emergency services or, in a few cases, sold. Information we hold on the number of vehicles subject to these enforcement steps is:

31 Jan 2008 : Column 542W

	Vehicles clamped	Of these: vehicles impounded	Vehicles disposed of by scrapping or sale
England
2002	32,270	21,391	16,583
2003	57,794	37,015	27,354
2004	61,732	44,449	30,994
2005	77,355	57,578	36,004
2006	78,272	56,986	33,763
2007	108,385	65,010	39,872
Total	415,808	282,429	184,570
Scotland
2002	3,062	2,494	2,011
2003	5,199	3,347	2,876
2004	4,028	2,611	2,277
2005	4,030	2,385	2,068
2006	4,393	2,761	2,197
2007	8,209	3,986	3,005
Total	28,921	17,584	14,434
Wales
2002	1,274	763	689
2003	2,290	1,225	1,090
2004	2,265	1,299	1,080
2005	2,613	1,855	1,303
2006	4,144	2,315	1,500
2007	7,048	3,589	2,368
Total	19,634	11,046	8,030
Northern Ireland
2002	(1)—	(1)—	(1)—
2003	(1)—	(1)—	(1)—
2004	(1)—	(1)—	(1)—
2005	1,329	(1)—	283
2006	3,132	911	849
2007	5,039	1,213	557
Total	9,500	2,124	1,689
Total
2002	36,606	24,648	19,283
2003	65,283	41,587	31,320
2004	68,025	48,359	34,351
2005	85,327	61,818	39,658
2006	89,941	62,973	38,309
2007	128,681	73,798	45,802
Total	473,863	313,183	208,723
(1) No figures available.

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