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Ofsted

Baroness Gould of Potternewton asked Her Majesty's Government:

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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland): This is a matter for Ofsted. Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, David Bell, will write to my noble friend and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Library.

Internet Access: Rural Areas

Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): Internet access is available to all those who have a telephone line irrespective of location. An Ofcom survey at the end of 2003 showed that UK Internet prices are cheaper than all other countries for peak narrowband metered and unmetered services. For off-peak services UK prices are below average for both metered and unmetered services.

However, some people cannot afford the cost of a computer to connect to the Internet and others actively choose not to invest in that equipment. Currently take-up of the Internet stands at 53 per cent of households. The option exists to visit one of the many People's Network Internet terminals in public library branches throughout the UK. The latest survey by Museums, Libraries and Archives shows the People's Network in England made 44 million Internet hours available last year, and 11.7 million user sessions were recorded.

Endangered Species: Imports

Lord Rotherwick asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): There were 411 seizures at import for the period in question.

2003Number of seizures Number of items seized Weight of items seized (kg)
Live animals and birds992,925
Parts and derivatives of endangered species1442,143
Ivory33145
Plants152,044
Other CITES listed species5318,972
2973.5
Preparations of oriental medicines that include parts of derivatives of endangered species205,042,728
18469.3

None of the cases resulted in a prosecution.

 
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Common Land

Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Whitty: The Government remain committed to bringing forward legislation on common land, including measures to enable the deregistration of wrongly registered common land. We plan to introduce legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows, but at this stage it is not possible to be more specific about the exact timing.

Fuel Efficiency

Lord Taylor of Warwick asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Davies of Oldham: The fuel efficiency of alternative modes of transport is presented in tabular form below. The data come from the 2002 National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI). Two data types are provided for ease of comparison, CO per passenger kilometre and kilo joules (kJ) per passenger kilometre, and are expressed using assumed load factors, not per seat.
 
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Load factor CO2 Energy consumption
Transport modepassengers/vehiclegrams of CO2/passenger kmkJ/ passenger km
Mopeds1.08 751,133
Motorcycles941,407
Petrol cars1.56 1101,653
Diesel cars1061,535
All cars average1091,634
Buses (national)9761,106
Passenger rail (diesel)90 41589
Passenger rail (electric)56465
Passenger rail (average UK —electric and diesel) 49 524
Air long haulapprox. 3001101,614
Air short haulapprox. 1001802,640
grams CO2/ ship kmkJ/ship km
Marine—roll on roll off ferrySee note83,0001,155,786

The road transport factors are based on National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) estimates of CO2 emissions by vehicle type in 2002 and combined with road passenger kilometres taken from the 2002 Transport Statistics for Great Britain.


Rail factors are also based on NAEI factors for diesel trains and power station emissions. These data were combined with Department of Trade and Industry data on electricity used for electric rail traction and the Department for Transport's statistics on rail passenger kilometres. AEA Technology provided estimates on the split between diesel and electric train kilometres.


Air factors are taken from DETR's Company GHG Reporting Manual 1999. Please note that long-haul journeys refer to average journeys of 6,500 km and short-haul refers to journeys of around 500 km.


There is no agreed methodology for allocating energy consumed between passengers and freight carried on water transport. The figures for water transport are for a roll-on–roll-off ferry expressed in grams CO2 and kJ per ship km, since many passenger ships carry both passengers and freight.

Railways

Lord Lucas asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Whether privately owned train operating companies have a principal part to play in the future of United Kingdom railways. [HL3466]

Lord Davies of Oldham: I refer the noble Lord to the Statement I repeated in the House on 19 January 2004 [Official Report, col. 858] which stated that the principle of public and private partnership is right for the railways and it will continue.



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