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Baroness Gould of Potternewton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether all schools and further education colleges are inspected by Ofsted in respect of sexual health and education. [HL3509]
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.
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
How they propose to arrange for all rural dwellers to have manageable and affordable access to the Internet so that they can access the employment rights advice provided by the Department of Trade and Industry. [HL3475]
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.
Lord Rotherwick asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many seizures of imports there have been under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Regulations in 2003; and how many of those seizures have resulted in prosecutions. [HL3415]
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.
2003 | Number of seizures | Number of items seized | Weight of items seized (kg) |
Live animals and birds | 99 | 2,925 | |
Parts and derivatives of endangered species | 144 | 2,143 | |
Ivory | 33 | 145 | |
Plants | 15 | 2,044 | |
Other CITES listed species | 53 | 18,972 | |
29 | 73.5 | ||
Preparations of oriental medicines that include parts of derivatives of endangered species | 20 | 5,042,728 | |
18 | 469.3 |
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the announcement in July 2002 setting out proposals for future legislation on common land, when they plan to bring forward measures for removing wrongly registered land from local authority registers. [HL3471]
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.
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.
5 Jul 2004 : Column WA70
Load factor | CO2 | Energy consumption | |
Transport mode | passengers/vehicle | grams of CO2/passenger km | kJ/ passenger km |
Mopeds | 1.08 | 75 | 1,133 |
Motorcycles | 94 | 1,407 | |
Petrol cars | 1.56 | 110 | 1,653 |
Diesel cars | 106 | 1,535 | |
All cars average | 109 | 1,634 | |
Buses (national) | 9 | 76 | 1,106 |
Passenger rail (diesel) | 90 | 41 | 589 |
Passenger rail (electric) | 56 | 465 | |
Passenger rail (average UK electric and diesel) | 49 | 524 | |
Air long haul | approx. 300 | 110 | 1,614 |
Air short haul | approx. 100 | 180 | 2,640 |
grams CO2/ ship km | kJ/ship km | ||
Marineroll on roll off ferry | See note | 83,000 | 1,155,786 |
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-onroll-off ferry expressed in grams CO2 and kJ per ship km, since many passenger ships carry both passengers and freight.
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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