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Mozambique
Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what date he received requests for help in disaster relief in Mozambique; what his response was; and what personnel and equipment have been provided. [112693]
Mr. Hoon: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) was approached by the Department for International Development (DfID) on Saturday 26 February as to the availability of British military equipment in and around Mozambique. We advised them that there were no military assets in the region. Since then we have been examining, in conjunction with DfID, options for the deployment of MOD personnel and equipment from beyond the immediate area. An MOD team was sent to the region on 29 February to carry out reconnaissance and planning work.
As a result, on Wednesday 1 March we jointly announced a decision to provide four Puma helicopters and around 100 aircrew and support personnel to assist in the immediate rescue operation. We are continuing to work closely with DfID to determine what further help we can provide.
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Local Government Remuneration
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he has held with the First Minister on issuing guidance to (a) councillors, (b) council leaders and (c) elected mayors on future levels of remuneration. [104847]
Mr. Hanson [holding answer 18 January 2000]: My right hon. Friend has discussions on issues affecting Wales with the First Secretary of the National Assembly for Wales on a regular basis. The Secretary of State has had no discussions with the First Secretary on issuing guidance to councils on future levels of remuneration or allowances. The setting of members' allowances is a matter for individual councils.
Under the present draft of the Local Government Bill, the National Assembly will have the power to make regulations to require councils in Wales to establish an independent panel to review councillors' allowances and pensions.
Child Poverty
Mr. Barry Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what research he has initiated into child poverty in Wales; and if he will make a statement. [107419]
Mr. Hanson: I have not initiated any research into child poverty in Wales. However, the Government are committed to tackling poverty and social exclusion in the UK. The Government's Poverty Strategy Report "Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion" launched in September 1999 set out a concerted cross-Government drive to highlight the underlying cases of poverty and social exclusion.
The National Assembly for Wales has set up a Social Exclusion Unit to look at poverty issues and will promote effective joint working to combat family poverty and social exclusion in Wales.
In addition, the Joint Ministerial Committee on Poverty has agreed to future joint working between the UK Government and the devolved administrations to tackle poverty across the UK.
Mr. Barry Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent representations he has made to the Lord Chancellor concerning the future of magistrates courts in rural areas and small townships in Wales; and if he will make a statement. [107422]
Mr. Paul Murphy:
I have made no such representations to the Lord Chancellor.
The Government consider that magistrates courts are best managed locally by magistrates courts committees under the provision of the Justices of the Peace Act 1997. Decisions concerning the future of magistrates courts in Wales, whether rural or urban, are for the relevant magistrates courts committee to determine, in consultation with the paying authority or authorisations.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list for (a) each local authority in Wales and
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(b) Wales as a whole the amount of revenue that will be raised from the uniform business rate in (1) 1990-2000 and (2) 2000-01. [112306]
Mr. Hanson:
Estimated figures for the amount of revenue that will be raised from the uniform business rate in 1999-2000 are as follows:
| £000 | |
|---|---|
| Isle of Anglesey | 7,517 |
| Gwynedd | 29,616 |
| Conwy | 17,027 |
| Denbighshire | 14,135 |
| Flintshire | 29,315 |
| Wrexham | 23,850 |
| Powys | 16,504 |
| Ceredigion | 8,144 |
| Pembrokeshire | 20,032 |
| Carmarthenshire | 22,331 |
| Swansea | 40,712 |
| Neath Port Talbot | 26,524 |
| Bridgend | 25,450 |
| The Vale of Glamorgan | 16,934 |
| Rhondda Cynon Taff | 31,849 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 8,505 |
| Caerphilly | 20,099 |
| Blaenau Gwent | 9,055 |
| Torfaen | 13,864 |
| Monmouthshire | 12,587 |
| Newport | 38,186 |
| Cardiff | 90,481 |
| Wales | 522,717 |
Since July 1999 business rates in Wales have been the responsibility of the National Assembly for Wales.
ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND THE REGIONS
London Underground
Mr. Cohen:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington
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(Mr. Brake), of 21 December 1999, Official Report, column 524W, what comparators he used to calculate the PPP infrastructure companies' estimated efficiency improvement of 20 per cent. [11592]
Mr. Hill:
The briefing note PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) published in December 1999 assumed that under the Public Private Partnership for London Underground the private sector infrastructure companies will bring efficiency improvements of 20 per cent. The PwC note, which has been placed in the House Library, sets out the basis for assuming this level of efficiency savings, which is in line with the experience of other industries where the financing and management of infrastructure programmes has been transferred to the private sector.
Since the PwC briefing note was published, Arthur Andersen and the London School of Economics have completed a report for the Treasury Taskforce called "Value for Money Drivers in the Private Finance Initiative". This shows the PFIs of all types are, on average, delivering efficiency savings of 17 per cent.
Mr. Cohen:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 21 December 1999, Official Report, column 521W, covering investment in London Underground, if he will list the specific projects envisaged, indicating the estimated cost of each. [111591]
Mr. Hill:
Under the terms of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) for London Underground, infrastructure companies will be required to implement a combination of specific projects and performance enhancements specified in output terms. The PPP will not, therefore, in general specify particular amounts of money to be spent, nor particular works to be carried out. It will be for bidders to decide what they have to do to meet the performance specification for each infrastructure company.
However, when the PPP competition was launched in June 1999 London Underground published a briefing document containing estimates of how much they then believed it would cost over the first 15 years to implement the performance regime under development for the PPP. This was broken down as follows:
2 Mar 2000 : Column: 331W
| Stations | Lifts and escalators | Trains | Track | Civil infrastructure | Communications | Management systems | Signalling | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bakerloo | 100 | 50 | 90 | 60 | 40 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 390 |
| Central, Waterloo and City | 220 | 90 | 100 | 160 | 100 | 30 | 10 | 70 | 780 |
| Victoria | 220 | 30 | 250 | 90 | 40 | 10 | 10 | 250 | 900 |
| Northern(2) | 320 | 70 | -- | 180 | 40 | 10 | 20 | 310 | 950 |
| Jubilee(3) | 80 | 50 | -- | 40 | 60 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 280 |
| Piccadilly | 220 | 50 | 500 | 180 | 50 | 20 | 20 | 150 | 1,190 |
| Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith and City | 330 | 20 | 590 | 210 | 170 | 40 | 10 | 330 | 1,700 |
| District | 210 | 20 | 250 | 130 | 100 | 30 | 10 | 220 | 970 |
| East London(4) | 50 | -- | -- | 10 | 130 | -- | 10 | -- | 200 |
(2) Northern Line train investment costs are contracted for under a separate PFI scheme and are excluded from these figures.
(3) Excludes operating and maintenance costs for the Jubilee Line Extension project.
(4) Excludes costs from potential project for extending East London Line.
2 Mar 2000 : Column: 331W
Aircraft Near-misses
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will set out
2 Mar 2000 : Column: 332W
the definition of a near miss between aircraft; how many such incidents have taken place at Heathrow in the past three years; and how many of those incidents occurred within three miles of Wargrave in Berkshire. [111259]
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Mr. Mullin:
The definition of a near miss (or Airprox) applied by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is
a situation in which, in the opinion of a pilot or controller, the distance between aircraft as well as their relative positions and speed have been such that the safety of the aircraft involved was or may have been compromised.
In the last three years (1997-99) there were four reported Airproxes in the London Heathrow (LHR) Zone, an area 24 nautical miles (nm) East-West by 16 nm North-South, centred on Heathrow. Wargrave does not lie in the LHR Zone but in the same period there were two reported Airproxes within a circle radius 3 nm centred on the town.
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