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30 Apr 2009 : Column 1444W—continued

Rescue Services: Scotland

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on how many occasions the HM Coastguard Search and Rescue helicopter based at (a) Sumburgh and (b) Stornoway has been called on to undertake flights at the request of the Scottish Ambulance Service in each of the last 10 years. [270904]


30 Apr 2009 : Column 1445W

Jim Fitzpatrick: Officials at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency have been asked to compile the requested data. The process involves reconciling a number of different data sources to provide the detailed information requested in a helpful form. This will take approximately one week with officials using the data held on hospital transfers involving the Scottish Ambulance Service. Officials will be in contact should the work to extract the data take longer than originally anticipated.

Transport Innovation Fund

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what allocations were made from the Transport Innovation Fund budget in financial year 2008-09; and how much was allocated to each project; [272088]

(2) what allocations were made from the Transport Innovation Fund budget for financial year 2009-10; and how much was allocated to each project; [272089]

(3) whether any unallocated monies from the Transport Innovation Fund budget for financial year 2008-09 will be brought forward to the Fund's budget for financial year 2009-10. [272090]

Paul Clark: Two programmes related to local congestion and productivity are currently supported by the Transport Innovation Fund.

Under the congestion TIF programme, Ministers have announced that up to £200 million a year is available for local authority schemes to tackle congestion that include an element of demand management. Programme Entry was awarded to the Greater Manchester TIF proposals in June 2008 which included an allocation of £20 million for development costs in 2008-09. In addition pump priming funds were allocated to areas looking at the nature of their congestion problem, the role of demand management in addressing it and whether to make a bid for TIF funding.

Under the productivity TIF programme, resources have been allocated to measures to improve the capacity and resilience of the strategic national freight distribution networks, hence supporting international trade and competitiveness, and to measures to make the most of capacity at key pressure points on the strategic networks, thus improving mobility for business and freight users. In addition, the Department for Transport's contributions to the Crossrail project will be supported by the fund.

Unallocated support may be taken into account in deciding future years’ allocations. Allocations made under the productivity TIF programme are as follows:


30 Apr 2009 : Column 1446W
Productivity TIF schemes
£ million

 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 Total

Gospel Oak / Barking

18.5

—

—

18.5

Humber Ports

1.0

3.0

2.0

6.0

Peterborough/Nuneaton

20.0

30.0

30.0

80.0

Southampton/Birmingham

15.0

27.8

—

42.8

Olive Mount Chord

0.8

0.9

—

1.7

Rail freight schemes

55.3

61.7

32.0

149.0

Birmingham box—gross cost

40.7

76.3

31.6

148.6

A14—gross cost

10.0

66.8

11.9

88.7

HA contribution to schemes

—

-20.6

-4.9

-25.5

Highways Agency traffic management schemes

50.7

122.5

38.6

211.8

Total PTIF

106.0

184.2

70.6

360.8


Women and Equality

Domestic Violence: Victim Support Schemes

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality from which local authorities the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is requesting an explanation for the level of support provided for victims of domestic abuse; and what criteria were used by the EHRC in deciding on its selection of local authorities from which to make such a request. [270438]

Maria Eagle: The Commission sent letters in March 2009 requesting further information from 94 local authorities who, according to research conducted, do not appear to have any specialised domestic abuse support services in their local authority area.

The letters sought to clarify the current provision of support services in these areas, together with any future planned provision, and to inquire how authorities have taken into account the Gender Equality Duty when determining the extent of provision of services in their area.

The local authorities are:


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30 Apr 2009 : Column 1448W

Children, Schools and Families

Academies

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent assessment his Department has made of progress on the academy programme in (a) Kettering and (b) England. [271076]

Jim Knight: The plans for two new Academies in Kettering, one of which will replace Henry Gotch Primary School and Ise Community College and another which will replace Avondale Infants School, Avondale Junior School and Montagu Foundation School, are progressing well and we expect them to open in September 2009. The Academy programme in England continues to expand towards our commitment of a total of 400.

Academies are leading the way in reducing low attainment with the 2008 GCSE results showing that performance continues to improve faster than the national average. The latest 2008 independent evaluation of the Academies programme by PricewaterhouseCoopers said that

and that

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