Written Answers to Questions
Monday 26 January 2009
Electoral Commission Committee
Catz Club
Mr. Maude: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what records the Electoral Commission holds of donations by Catz Club to the (a) Labour Party and (b) Labour-related regulated donees. [250352]
Sir Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it has received one report of a donation by Catz Club to the Labour Party of £7,500 reported as accepted on 27 June 2008. No other donations from Catz Club have been reported to the Commission by the Labour Party or any regulated donee.
Policy Development Grant
Mr. Hurd: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission how the policy development grant is uprated each year; and whether the allocation of policy development grant will be (a) cut or (b) frozen if yearly retail price index inflation is negative. [250526]
Sir Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that section 12 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (2000) limits the policy development grant to an annual sum of £2,000,000. The amount of grant is not linked to the retail price index. However, the Act does allow for the Secretary of State, with the consent of the Treasury, to vary the annual amount.
Political Parties: Finance
Mr. Hurd: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what plans the Electoral Commission has to revise its guidance on regulated donees following recent decisions by the Crown Prosecution Service. [250528]
Sir Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it is currently reviewing the implications of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision in December 2008, not to bring charges in a case referred by the Commission to the Metropolitan Police.
Pending the outcome of that review, the Commission believes that the guidance it has issued on the reporting obligations of regulated donees remains valid. The Commission will consider whether it is necessary to revise its guidance when it has completed the review and has agreed with Government what steps, if any, are needed to clarify the legal requirements on the reporting of donations by regulated donees.
Transport
A14: Kettering
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the detailed plans for the widening of the A14 between junctions 7 and 9 around Kettering will be made available for public consultation. [251081]
Paul Clark: The Highways Agency is carrying out a detailed assessment of proposals to widen the A14 between junctions 7 and 9 at Kettering to dual three-lane standard within the highway boundary. A public information exhibition on the widening plans is expected to be held in autumn 2009.
Airports: Police
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of the policing costs for (a) East Midlands airport, (b) Humberside airport and (c) Bournemouth airport was met by the airport owners in each year since 1997. [250110]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Under section 25 of the Aviation Security Act 1982, there are only nine airports where the owners are required to pay for dedicated policing costs: London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Stansted, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow International, Glasgow Prestwick, Birmingham and Manchester. The extent to which airport operators at non-designated airports contribute towards policing costs is a private commercial matter for the parties involved.
Part 6 of the Policing and Crime Bill proposes that all airport operators should be required to meet the costs of any dedicated policing where they have agreed these with the Chief Officer of Police and police authority for the area.
Aviation: Finance
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what oversight his Department has over the allocation and use of (a) route development funds and (b) other sources of support for air services. [250656]
Jim Fitzpatrick: A regional body wishing to establish a route development fund to provide start-up aid for new air services will be expected to sign up to the Department’s Protocol governing the operation of such funds. The Protocol has been published on the DfT website at:
www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/domestic/anationalprotocol forukrouted2873
An air route on which a Public Service Obligation (PSO) has been imposed may be eligible for subsidy under the rules set out in Regulation EC 1008/2008. Any application to impose a PSO must be approved by the Secretary of State.
Any other proposals to provide funding for air services must take account of European guidance on the use of State aid. Any resulting State aid notification to the European Commission must be cleared by the Department.
Aviation: Standards
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his Department’s practice is with regard to the monitoring of (a) seat availability, (b) pricing and (c) competitive behaviour of individual airlines. [250655]
Jim Fitzpatrick: None. A European airline which meets the necessary safety and financial fitness requirements may operate without Government oversight of its seat availability or prices. In the European Union, airlines are of course subject to competition law as overseen by the competition authorities.
Biofuels
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what estimate he has made of the percentage of biofuel produced from used cooking oil; [250792]
(2) what steps he has taken to encourage production of fuel from used cooking oil. [250793]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation requires suppliers of fossil fuel to ensure that a proportion of the fuel they supply is renewable fuel. Under the scheme biodiesel made from waste cooking oil is an eligible renewable fuel.
The Renewable Fuel Agency administers the scheme and their January quarterly report summarises data on fuel supplied between April and October 2008. This report indicates that used cooking oil made up 3 per cent. (22 million litres) of the biofuel supplied over this period to meet the obligation. Their report is available on the RFA website at:
Cars: Sales
Mrs. McGuire: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many sales of (a) petrol- and (b) diesel-fuelled cars there were in each of the last three financial years. [250304]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The numbers (in thousands) of petrol and diesel-fuelled cars newly registered in Great Britain in each of the last three financial years were as follows:
| Financial year | |||
| Fuel type | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
These data include all cars that have been newly registered in each financial year and will, therefore, include vehicles that have been imported into Great Britain during this time.
Departmental Catering
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what (a) directly-operated and (b) franchised catering outlets his Department and its agencies provide for staff. [249083]
Departmental Pay
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make it his policy that temporary and permanent employees of his Department employed at the same grade receive the same hourly rate of pay. [248419]
Mr. Hoon: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 18 December 2008, Official Report, columns 1004-05W.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much has been spent by his Department on staff reward and recognition schemes in each of the last three years. [248704]
Mr. Hoon: In total £14,070 has been spent within the Department for Transport on staff reward and recognition schemes. This is broken down per year as follows:
| £ | |
Departmental Telephone Services
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what use (a) his Department and (b) service providers under contract to his Department make of (i) 0844 and 0845 telephone numbers and (ii) revenue-sharing telephone numbers for calls from members of the public; for which services such numbers are used; what prefixes are used for revenue-sharing numbers; how much revenue has accrued from revenue-sharing numbers in each of the last five years; what consideration his Department has given to introducing 03-prefixed telephone numbers for calls to all such services; and if he will make a statement. [247349] [Official Report, 12 March 2009, Vol. 489, c. 11MC.]
Mr. Hoon: The Department for Transport and its Executive agencies operate three 0845 numbers and one 0844 number. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency uses 0870 revenue-sharing numbers to provide access to nine public services. Information about these is set out as follows:
Revenue information from the DVLA services is only available since January 2005. The figures are shown by calendar year.
| £ | |
In addition, the Driving Standards Agency and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency have recently switched from 0870 to 0300 numbers for calls made to their contact centres. Revenue information about these is set out as follows:
| £ | ||
| DSA | VOSA | |
| (1) DSA switched to 0300 line on 31 October 2008. (2) VOSA switched to 0300 line on 30 September 2008. | ||
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