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8 Dec 2009 : Column 198W—continued
Motor Vehicles: Excise Duties
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many people renewed their vehicle excise duty online in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009 to date. [304531]
Paul Clark: During 2008 the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's Electronic Vehicle Re-licensing and SORN service completed 16,299,242 successful transactions, broken down into 14,141,505 re-licensing transactions and 2,157,737 SORN transactions.
To date in 2009, there have been 18,107,026 successful transactions. 15,794,997 of these were re-licensing transactions and 2,312,029 were SORN transactions.
Network Rail
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what discussions he has had with train operating companies on proposals that they take control of the railway network from Network Rail. [301226]
Chris Mole: The Department for Transport has not had any recent formal discussions with train companies on proposals that they take control of the railway network from Network Rail.
Norwich-London Railway Line
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport on how many occasions Ministers in his Department travelled on the Norwich to London railway line in the course of their official duties in each of the last 10 years. [304214]
Chris Mole: The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Roads: Accidents
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport (1) how many (a) road traffic accidents, (b) road traffic fatalities, (c) accidents involving motorcyclists, (d) fatalities involving motorcyclists, (e) accidents involving cyclists and (f) fatalities involving cyclists there were in (i) Berkshire and (ii) Reading East constituency in each of the last five years; [304632]
(2) how many road traffic accidents in (a) Berkshire and (b) Reading East constituency involved motorbikes in each of the last five years; and how many of these resulted in loss of life in each of those five years; [304633]
(3) how many road traffic accidents which occurred in (a) Berkshire and (b) Reading East constituency involved loss of life in each of the last five years. [304666]
Paul Clark: The information requested is given in the following tables:
| Reported personal injury road accidents and fatalities in Berkshire: 2004-08 | |||||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
| Reported personal injury road accidents and fatalities in Reading East constituency( 1) : 2004-08 | |||||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
| (1) Based on 2004 constituency boundaries. | |||||
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport (1) how many fatal road traffic accidents there have been in Reading, East constituency where the major contributory factor was (a) speed, (b) excess alcohol and (c) failure to maintain the vehicle in each of the last five years; [304635]
(2) how many individuals were injured as a result of road accidents attributed to (a) road surface defects, (b) road works and (c) defective road signs in (i) Berkshire and (ii) Reading, East constituency in each of the last five years. [304637]
Paul Clark: Information on contributory factors to road accidents is not available below Government office region level.
Information about contributory factors can be found in Article 4 in the Reported Road Casualties Great Britain: 2008 Annual Report, copies of which have been deposited in the Libraries of the House.
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what statistics his Department collects on road traffic accidents involving newly-qualified drivers; and how many such accidents occurred in Reading, East constituency in the last five years. [304636]
Paul Clark: Information regarding the length of time individuals involved in road accidents have held a driving licence is not routinely collected by the Department for Transport.
The Department has published research into new and learner drivers, Road Safety Research Report No. 81-Cohort II: A Study of Learner and New Drivers, part of which looked at their involvement in road accidents.
A copy of this report has been deposited in the Libraries of the House.
Siemens
Sir Menzies Campbell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether his Department has entered into any contracts with Siemens or its subsidiaries since February 2009. [303762]
Chris Mole: The Department for Transport has awarded one contract through the Highways Agency for Regional Control Centre Operational Telephony Service Management to Siemens plc on 20 August 2009. The value of the contract on award was £3,320,000.
Siemens has several hundred subsidiary companies and to carry out a search across the Department for contacts with all of these companies would incur disproportionate costs.
Defence
Afghanistan: Armed Forces
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent estimate he has made of the number of soldiers of the Afghan national army who are fully trained; and what proportion of these are serving in Helmand province. [303910]
Bill Rammell: The total number of Afghan national army currently stands at approximately 96,000. This total includes soldiers that have completed training and those who are still going through training.
As announced by the Prime Minister on 14 October 2009, Official Report, column 300, there were only 4,200 Afghan soldiers in Helmand last year; this year there are already an extra 50 per cent, more than 6,000, and more on the way.
As recently made clear by the Prime Minister, we will continue to work closely with the Government of Afghanistan and the International Community to build the capacity of the Afghan national security forces.
Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he has taken to improve the energy efficiency of forward operating bases in Afghanistan. [304477]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Work is in hand to ensure equipment deployed at forward operating bases in Afghanistan is configured, managed and used to minimise energy consumption as far as is practicable. This includes monitoring and analysing energy use, insulating operational accommodation, and making more efficient use of diesel generators. We are also exploring options such as the use of solar power, advanced thermoelectric generators and energy storage devices. A number of the proposals are being evaluated for potential deployment to further reduce energy use and vulnerability at forward operating bases.
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will introduce groin protection plates as an addition to personal body armour for armed forces personnel deployed in Helmand province. [304727]
Mr. Quentin Davies: We are continually seeking ways to further protect our personnel, and work is well under way to research ways of providing additional protection including for the whole of the perineal area.
Air Force: Deployment
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the average unit tour interval of each Royal Air Force regiment was at the latest date for which information is available. [304375]
Bill Rammell: The average unit tour interval for the RAF Regiment Field Squadrons, i.e. the interval between overseas deployments, is 15 months as at 3 December 2009. This figure continues to improve reflecting increased recruitment and action taken earlier this year to increase the RAF Regiment. An additional Force Protection Wing and Force Protection Squadron have been added to the Regiment's strength, bringing the total to seven Force Protection Wings and Squadrons.
Aircraft Carriers
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the planned in-service dates are for the two new aircraft carriers. [304348]
Mr. Quentin Davies: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 2 November 2009, Official Report, column 649W, to the hon. Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis).
The latest cost and time estimates are currently going through the Department's approval process. As is normal practice, we will not make any announcements until this process has completed.
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