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18 Mar 2010 : Column 987W—continued
Defence: Scotland
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence who in his Department (a) was consulted on and (b) agreed the Scotland Office Background Paper, Scotland and Defence. [321704]
Bill Rammell [holding answer 11 March 2010]: Officials in the Ministry of Defence were consulted on, and I agreed, the Scotland Office Background Paper, based upon advice from those MOD officials.
Princess Royal Barracks
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will provide copies of the report of Devon and Cornwall police on the handling by Surrey Police of the deaths of young recruits at Deepcut Army Barracks to the parents of the deceased; and if he will make a statement. [320831]
Bill Rammell: No. This is entirely a matter for the police.
Territorial Army: Shropshire
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much funding has been allocated to Sundorne Territorial Army base for 2010-11. [322274]
Bill Rammell: Budgets for financial year 2010-11 have yet to be finalised for this site.
Transport
Public Transport: Rural Access
14. Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent studies his Department has undertaken on access to public transport for people living in rural areas. [322765]
Mr. Khan: The Department for Transport has commissioned studies in northern England, as part of Delivering a Sustainable Transport System, which include rural aspects. We have funded a project with the Improvement and Development Agency to produce and publish guidance on accessible rural transport. We also work closely with the Commission for Rural Communities, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who publish a number of studies each year.
Public Transport Usage
15. Peter Luff: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what steps he is taking to encourage motorists to make greater use of public transport; and if he will make a statement. [322766]
Mr. Khan: Record levels of investment in the public transport networks by the Department for Transport have led to substantial increases in its usage: over £15 billion has been committed to support the railways between 2009 and 2014; we have increased public expenditure on buses in England to £2.6 billion a year, double the level of support a decade ago; and, around £1 billion is being spent on concessionary travel every year. This investment has resulted in more journeys now being made on the railways than at any time since the 1940s; we are starting to see year-on-year increases in bus patronage-the first time since the 1950s; and, around 11 million people are benefiting from the greater freedom and independence brought through concessionary fares.
Roadworks
16. Simon Hughes: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether his Department has had recent discussions with utility companies on the effects of roadworks on traffic flow on highways. [322767]
Mr. Khan: Street works by utility companies and others contribute to traffic congestion that costs the economy £4.2 billion a year. The Government are committed to reducing the impact of street works on traffic and pedestrian flows, and I have consistently made clear to the utility companies that this level of impact is simply not acceptable.
Kemble to Swindon Line
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent discussions he has had with Network Rail on the re-doubling of the Kemble to Swindon line. [322762]
Chris Mole:
Finance totalling £2.6 million has been allocated from the south-west region, the Department for Transport and the Welsh Assembly Government to
complete a detailed study into the redoubling of the 13 mile section of line between Swindon and Kemble. This has led to an indicative price of £52.4 million from Network Rail.
Bus Services: Concessions
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much the Government have spent on concessionary bus travel for pensioners in Leeds North West constituency in each year since the scheme was introduced. [322701]
Mr. Khan: Administration of the concessionary travel scheme in Leeds North West is carried out by West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. The Government provide funding for concessionary travel through two channels: Formula Grant to Leeds city council and special grant to West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority (WYITA).
Before 1 April 2008, funding for the statutory minimum bus concession was provided exclusively through the formula grant system. Formula grant is an unhypothecated block grant and as such it is not possible to identify how much formula grant has been allocated to local authorities for any particular service, such as concessionary travel for older and disabled people.
When the statutory minimum concession increased from half-fare to free fare in April 2006, additional funding of £350 million in 2006-07 and £367.5 million in 2007-08 was added to Formula Grant to fund the additional burden to local authorities.
From April 2008, the Department for Transport has provided additional special grant funding to local authorities to cover the extra costs of providing England-wide travel, of which WYITA received £8,666,725 in 2008-09 and £8,871,129 in 2009-10. The Department for Communities and Local Government continues to provide the bulk of concessionary travel funding to local authorities through Formula Grant.
The following table shows how much was spent on concessionary travel by West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority since 2000, when the Government first introduced a statutory minimum bus concession. These figures include spending on both older and disabled travel concessions and include any discretionary enhancements offered:
| West Yorkshire | |
| £ million | |
Cycling: Helmets
Mr. Bone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether he plans to make a formal response to the report commissioned from the Transport Research Laboratory on the potential for cycle helmets to prevent injury. [322823]
Paul Clark: The Department for Transport does not intend to make a formal response to the report on The Potential for Cycle Helmets to Prevent Injury. The Department publishes numerous reports throughout the year and it would not be practical to make a formal response for each report's publication. As with all research carried out for the Department, we will take account of its findings in considering our policies.
Departmental Domestic Visits
Andrew Selous: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport which constituencies each Minister in his Department visited in 2009; and on what date each such visit took place. [322384]
Chris Mole [holding answer 15 March 2010]: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Departmental ICT
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what information technology projects initiated by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies were cancelled prior to completion in the last 12 months; and what the cost of each such project was to the public purse. [320421]
Chris Mole: The following are the only major Department for Transport projects known to be cancelled in the last 12 months:
ISYS, an Information Management System costing £110,333, proved to be unsuitable as the software response times were too slow. However, this project helped us to define our requirements and feed into the wider initiative on records management.
TVTTT, a project for Tracking Vehicles Through the Trade, cost £7,800,000 and was cancelled as another project was found to be better and less costly. Agreement was made with the National Audit Office that we would assess how much of the work undertaken was reusable, which will be done in due course.
VINI, a project for Northern Ireland Vehicle Integration Project cost £7,500,000, but changes in vehicle excise duty led to the need to concentrate on other DVLA systems. Much of the analysis work remains valid and may be resurrected in future using some of the existing work.
In each of these cases all efforts are being made to use both the experience gained, and the work already carried out, in future projects.
Departmental Information Officers
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport pursuant to the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) of 9 February 2010, Official Report, columns 844-45W, on departmental information officers, what the titles were of each of the embedded communicators in each of the agencies listed; and on what date each such position was established. [320899]
Chris Mole: The titles of the roles of the embedded communicators for each of the Department's executive agencies, together with the date each position was created is set out in the following table.
In the answer to the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) of 9 February 2010, a clerical error led to the number of embedded communicators for the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) being reported as three. There are no embedded communicators in VOSA.
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