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22 July 2008 : Column 1047W—continued
Transport: Fuels
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assumptions her Department has made in respect of the price of carbon for the purposes of the appraisal of (a) road and (b) rail schemes; what account she takes of the (i) EU trading price of carbon, (ii) value of carbon ascribed by Nicholas Stern and (iii) notional figure required to achieve a 60 per cent. cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 in such appraisals; and if she will make a statement. [218814]
Jim Fitzpatrick
[holding answer 14 July 2008]: The Department recommends all appraisals use the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ shadow price
of carbon (SPC) when valuing greenhouse gas emissions. These estimates are used across Government appraisals and, in transport, across the different types of intervention.
DEFRA's recent release—“The Social Cost of Carbon and the Shadow Price of Carbon: What they are, and how to use them in Economic Appraisal in the UK”—documents the assumptions underpinning the current estimate and the approach used in its calculation. It is conceptually different to the market price for carbon, so the EU trading price of carbon does not enter into DEFRA's assessment.
Carbon impacts will vary depending on the greenhouse gas concentration trajectory the world is on. If emissions fail to fall at the rates targeted, the higher will be the trajectory for carbon concentrations and the more damage from climate change. The SPC calculation undertaken by DEFRA is based on Nicholas Stern's analysis of this aspect.
Transport: Nuclear Fuels
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions she has had with L'Autorité de sÃ"reté nucléaire (ASN) on its refusal to give further authorisations for plutonium shipments from Sellafield to the Areva plant at La Hague following receipt of a consignment of UK plutonium from Sellafield on 21 May; and what steps have been taken in response to the issues highlighted by ASN. [220204]
Jim Fitzpatrick: As a result of discussion between this Department and L'Autorité de sÃ"reté nucléaire (ASN) regarding the shipment of plutonium by Sellafield Ltd in May, and our subsequent investigations, we took regulatory action to prevent further shipments of plutonium from Sellafield in the same manner. ASN has not itself taken any regulatory action.
Sellafield Ltd has appealed the action. Until that appeal process is concluded Sellafield Ltd is prohibited from making any further shipments of this type of plutonium in the same manner.
Transport: Pressure Groups
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on how many occasions Ministers and officials from her Department have met representatives of (a) Hacan ClearSkies, (b) Plane Stupid, (c) Greenpeace and (d) Friends of the Earth since January 2006. [218815]
Jim Fitzpatrick [holding answer 14 July 2008]: I met with a number of representatives from environmental groups, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, on 11 July 2007. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State met a number of representatives from this list on 10 September 2007, and met with Greenpeace on 21 February 2008 and 10 September 2007. The then Secretary of State (the right hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire, South) met with Greenpeace on 28 June 2006 and his predecessor, the right hon. Member for Edinburgh, South-West, met with environmental groups including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth on 2 June 2006.
In addition, I met with a range of environmental and special interest groups, including all of those listed above, on 21 November 2007 in connection with the Department’s consultation on adding capacity at Heathrow.
Officials meet representatives from environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, regularly, for example in meetings of the External Advisory Group on the Air Transport White Paper, or on an ad hoc basis to discuss specific issues. Officials also regularly meet with representatives of Hacan ClearSkies at the bi-monthly Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee meetings of which Hacan is a member.
West Coast Railway Line
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if she will make it her policy to ensure that the 25 milestones agreed by the Office of Rail Regulation with Network Rail to monitor the progress towards the December delivery of the West Coast upgrade, will be reported on more than twice before December. [221311]
Mr. Tom Harris: The Office of Rail Regulation is responsible on a quarterly basis for reporting the progress made by Network Rail in their delivery of the West Coast Main Line upgrade.
In its Network Rail Monitor for 2007-08 published 5 June 2008, the ORR noted that two significant milestones were achieved on 5 and 29 May with the successful commissioning of new infrastructure on the Trent Valley four tracking project (Stages 1 and 3) and between Rugby and Nuneaton (Stage G).
Defence
Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many incidents of theft of British military supplies during transit from the port of debarkation in Pakistan to the final destination in Afghanistan have been reported since September 2007. [190452]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth:
There have been 23 reports of theft of British military supplies during transit from the
port of disembarkation in Pakistan to the final destination in Afghanistan in the period between 1 September 2007 and 17 July 2008 inclusive.
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) tanks and (b) armoured personnel carriers have been lost as a result of enemy action in Afghanistan during the last 12 months. [215431]
Des Browne: I am withholding detailed information regarding the numbers of protected mobility vehicles lost to enemy fire as its release would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, operational security or effectiveness of the armed forces.
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) scope and (b) length of the NATO contract for civilian aircraft in Afghanistan is; what aircraft types are involved; and how many military flying hours they are planned to free up each year. [218619]
Des Browne [holding answer 14 July 2008]: The NATO contract for civilian aircraft in Regional Command (South) is for ten tonnes of lift per week until 31 January 2009. Mi-17 helicopters are being used to fulfil the contract. The contract was not let on the basis of releasing a set number of military flying hours; however, it is estimated that up to 95 military flying hours may be saved.
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 24 June 2008, Official Report, column 175W, on Afghanistan: peacekeeping operations, what the name was of each of the deceased; what the date was of each incident; what the (a) location was and (b) circumstances were of each incident; what the cause of death was in each case; and what the status is of each investigation. [219609]
Des Browne: The details of the investigations referred to in the previous answer are shown in the following table. I am withholding the names of the deceased for privacy reasons and to protect the security of the families of locally employed personnel.
Armed Forces: Deployment
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many UK personnel are deployed on operations, broken down by location. [214459]
Des Browne: The following table shows the number of UK service personnel deployed on operations by location at 23 June 2008. The number of personnel in theatre will naturally fluctuate on a daily basis for a variety of reasons, including leave (rest and recuperation), temporary absence for training, evacuation for medical reasons, the roulement of forces and other factors.
| Number of personnel deployed by location( 1) | |
| Location | Number |
| (1) Countries with 10 or more personnel are shown separately. Other countries with fewer than 10 personnel per country include Georgia, Nepal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. (2 )Figures for Iraq and Afghanistan have been rounded to the nearest 100. Other figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Due to rounding methods used, the total may not equal the sum of the individual locations. | |
Armed Forces: Gyms
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what his Department's policy is on charging service personnel for use of garrison gyms; [206754]
(2) whether service personnel will be charged for the use of super-garrison gyms. [206755]
Derek Twigg: In Army garrisons, personnel use the gym facilities free of charge. At Aldershot and Tidworth where a public finance initiative contractor and local authority run the local sports and leisure centres, personnel are charged for using these facilities for non-military (i.e. personal) training outside of core hours. In both cases a small administration fee is charged for health and safety induction processes as well as swipe cards.
Although super-garrisons are still at the concept stage, there are currently no plans to charge personnel for the use of gyms.
Armed Forces: Health Services
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the waiting list targets for (a) Ministry of Defence hospital units, (b) regional rehabilitation units and (c) Departments of Community Mental Health are; and what progress has been made towards these targets in each year since 2003. [216250]
Derek Twigg: Since financial year (FY) 2006-07 targets for Ministry of Defence hospital units (MDHUs) are for a percentage of patients to attend an outpatients appointment within four weeks of referral by their GP and, with a decision to admit, for a percentage of patients to receive treatment within six weeks; this equates to a 10-week care pathway from referral to treatment for those who need it. The average of targets placed on MDHUs and the actual performance against these targets since 2006-07 and 2007-08 are shown in the following table. Targets for 2008-09 are currently being negotiated with individual NHS hospital authorities that host MDHUs.
| Percentage of patients to be seen as an outpatient within four weeks | Percentage of patients to receive treatment within 6 weeks of decision to admit | |||
| Target | Actual | Target | Actual | |
These targets are more stringent than the current NHS target of 18 weeks from GP referral to treatment for 85 per cent. of patients. The contracts MOD holds with MDHU hosting hospitals enables accelerated access for Service patients to rapidly return them to combat effectiveness.
Prior to 2006, targets for outpatients appointments at all MDHUs were for 45 per cent. of patients to be seen within four weeks of GP referral and 90 per cent. within 13 weeks. Following a decision to admit for treatment, the target was for 80 per cent. of patients to be treated within 13 weeks; this equates to a total care pathway of between 17 and 26 weeks from referral to treatment for those who needed it.
| Percentage of patients to be seen as an outpatient within four weeks | Percentage of patients to be seen as an outpatient within 13 weeks | Percentage of patients to receive treatment within 13 weeks of decision to admit | ||||
| Target | Actual | Target | Actual | Target | Actual | |
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