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7 Feb 2008 : Column 1407W—continued
“a holder of a Class 1 medical certificate shall have no established medical history or clinical diagnosis of any psychiatric disease or disability, condition or disorder, acute or chronic, congenital or acquired, which is likely to interfere with the safe exercise of the privileges of the applicable licence(s).”
Aviation: Security
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment she has made of the use of air marshals on flights operating out of Heathrow and Gatwick and flying to the United States. [183640]
Jim Fitzpatrick: All aviation security measures are kept under active review. For security reasons, it would be inappropriate to comment on the specific arrangements which have been put in place, or on any assessment of them.
Bus Services
Graham Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how many meetings were held between her Department's officials and representatives of bus operating companies on the Local Transport Bill between May 2007 and 16 January 2008; and which company or companies attended each meeting; [184109]
(2) how many meetings have been held between her Department's officials and the Confederation of Passenger Transport on the Local Transport Bill between May 2007 and 16 January 2008; [184111]
(3) how many meetings have been held between Ministers and special advisers from her Department and representatives of bus operating companies by company on the Local Transport Bill between May 2007 and 16 January 2008; and which company or companies attended each meeting; [184112]
(4) how many meetings have been held between Ministers and special advisers from her Department and the Confederation of Passenger Transport on the Local Transport Bill between May 2007 and 16 January 2008. [184113]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 4 February 2008]: As part of the process of consultation on the Local Transport Bill, both before and since introduction, Ministers, special advisers and officials have held a number of meetings with stakeholders, individually or collectively, including representatives of the bus industry.
Bus Services: Standards
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what measures are in place to penalise bus operators who consistently fail to deliver a clean and punctual service; what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of this system; and what further measures have been considered to hold such operators to account. [183329]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Traffic Commissioners currently have powers to penalise bus operators who fail to operate local services in accordance with their registered timetables. Under section 155 of the Transport Act 2000 they can impose a penalty of up to £550 multiplied by the total number of vehicles which the operator is licensed to use. The Traffic Commissioners can also attach conditions to operators’ licences.
The performance regime was looked at closely as part of the review of buses leading up the Local Transport Bill. As part of this a new regime is being developed which will ensure that the Traffic Commissioners receive better quality punctuality data and for the first time hold local authorities as well as operators to account.
We are also giving Traffic Commissioners new powers in the Local Transport Bill where services are not operated punctually. They will be able to require operators to invest in improvements to local services or to compensate passengers, which could be for example in the form of monetary payments or free or reduced price travel.
Local authorities have a role to play in driving up quality standards such as the level of cleanliness. Quality partnership schemes may make provision for a standard of cleanliness to be complied with, as the North Sheffield scheme does. Also voluntary partnership agreements between bus operators and local authorities often make provisions of this kind. The Local Transport Bill includes measures intended to promote more partnership schemes and agreements that will be of benefit to bus passengers.
The Local Transport Bill will also make the option of quality contracts schemes a more realistic one for those local authorities who are able to meet the criteria. Where such a scheme is in force, the local authority, rather than the Traffic Commissioner, would be responsible for ensuring that contracted bus operators comply with standards of punctuality, cleanliness and other matters specified in the contract.
We are currently consulting on options to bolster the voice of bus passengers. The consultation paper—‘Options for strengthening bus passenger representation’ asks for comments on how we can champion improvement in bus services, work with stakeholders to ensure that the passengers’ voice is heard when key decisions are being made and make suggestions about the future direction on bus provision. The consultation closes on 17 March.
Cars: Carbon Emissions
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if she will make it her policy that the maximum limit in 2020 for car emissions should be 100 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre. [181974]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Neither we nor the European Commission have any plans to set a limit per car. We believe that 100 g/km as an average for new cars in the EU should be achievable by 2020 (or 2025 at the latest). We are urging the European Commission, European Parliament and European Council to seek consensus on this as soon as possible.
Concessionary Bus Travel
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Taunton of 28 January, Official Report, column 42W, on concessionary bus travel, how much local authorities contributed to the scheme in each year since 2005, broken down by local authority area. [184931]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 5 February 2008]: To date, funding for statutory minimum bus concession travel has been allocated through the formula grant process (RSG). Authorities are free to use their own funding, in addition to this, to offer discretionary concessions over and above the statutory minimum. It is not possible to disaggregate how much funding local authorities contributed to their schemes since concessionary fares funding is not separately identified in formula grant and figures on concessionary fares spending do not distinguish between the statutory minimum concession and local enhancements. The amount local authorities actually spent on concessionary travel including any local enhancements, since 2005, is shown in the table which has been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Departmental Freedom of Information
Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many freedom of information requests her Department received in each year since 2005; and how many of those requests have been refused. [183798]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Government have published two annual reports that contain statistical information about how many requests have been received by monitored bodies (including central Government Departments) and how many have been refused.
These reports can be found at the following address:
Data are currently being collected across monitored bodies in order to produce the 2007 annual report and Q4 monitoring report. However, Q1 to Q3 monitoring reports of 2007 can be found at the following address:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/freedomofinformation quarterly.htm.
Departmental Public Relations
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many external contracts her Department held with public relations companies in each of the last 10 years; and what the total cost of those contracts was. [183199]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Expenditure from the 2002-03 fiscal year when the Department was formed, which includes the cost of PR promotions in various media, is outlined as follows.
The Department’s prime use of external public relations is in support of our marketing activities on the THINK! road safety, Act on CO2, and the Concessionary Bus Fares campaigns. The rise in spend for 2006-07 follows the appointment of an agency to help in extending Act on CO2 campaign messages. The
further increase in spend for 2007-08 reflects the inclusion of the Concessionary Bus Fares campaign and the European Whole Vehicle Type Approval
campaign. DVLA’s spend is primarily in support of the Continuous Registration (vehicle tax) campaign.
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