Monday 8 March 2010
Aviation: Safety
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport if he will hold discussions with aircraft manufacturers on the relative safety merits of aircraft black boxes and real time data transmitters. [320230]
Paul Clark: The responsibility for determining what equipment should be installed on aircraft registered in the EU now rests with the European Aviation Safety Agency.
Roads: Speed Limits
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport on which (a) roads and (b) sections of road variable speed limits have been introduced in each of the last 10 years. [319046]
Paul Clark: The Department for Transport does not routinely collate information about the location of variable speed limits. For principal roads or if the speed limit is varied to 20 mph, local traffic authorities have powers to introduce variable speed limits without consent from the Secretary of State. On the strategic road network, variable speed limits are located among other locations, on:
M25-Junction 10 to Junction 16
M42-Junction J3A to Junction 7
M6-Junction 4 to Junction 5
M42-Junction 7 to Junction 9
M40-Junction 16 to M42 Junction 3A.
Driving Offences: Mobile Phones
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prosecutions there have been of people of each sex in each age group in (a) England and Wales, (b) Essex and (c) Southend for the offence of driving whilst using a hand-held mobile telephone since the creation of that offence. [320601]
Claire Ward: The number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences of using a hand held mobile telephone while driving, by sex and age group, in England and Wales and the Essex police force area, from 2004 (the offence came into force on 1 December 2003) to 2008 (latest available) is given in the following table.
Court proceedings data are not available at town or parliamentary constituency level.
Court proceedings data for 2009 are planned for publication in the autumn, 2010.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100308/text/100308w0020.htm#1003092000008
Driving Under Influence
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many motorists were (a) stopped on suspicion and (b) prosecuted for drink driving in 2009. [319754]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Information is not collected centrally on how many motorists were stopped on suspicion of drink driving. Information on breath tests held by the Home Office covers the number of screening breath tests carried out and of which number of positive/refused. This information is broken down by police force area level only. Please see chapter 4 of our most recent publication of Police Powers and Procedures 07/08 for number of screening breath tests.
The Home Office advise that data for 2009 are planned for publication in April 2010.
Information held by the Ministry of Justice deals with court proceedings for drink drive offences. The Ministry of Justice advise that data for 2009 are planned to be published in the autumn, 2010. The number of proceedings at magistrates courts for drink driving offences in 2008 (latest available) can be found in “Criminal Statistics England and Wales 2008” volume 6, table S6.1, supplementary volumes, “Court proceedings offences relating to motor vehicles” published on the Ministry of Justice website. See following link:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/criminalannual.htm
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Government Car and Despatch Agency: Driving Offences
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many driving offences of each type have been committed by those who drive Ministers whilst on duty for the Government Car and Despatch Agency in each of the last three years. [320792]
Paul Clark: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 1 March 2010, Official Report, column 859W.
Wednesday 10 March 2010
Cycling
Lynne Jones: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what estimate he has made of the annual amount spent per head of population in (a) Aylesbury, (b) Brighton, (c) Darlington, (d) Derby, (e) Exeter, (f) Lancaster, (g) Birmingham, (h) Manchester, (i) Bristol, (j) Cambridge, (k) the West Midlands and (l) England to encourage cycling in each of the last five years. [321418]
Mr. Khan: The four main streams of Departmental funding to encourage cycling in England are local transport plan funding, “cycle city and town” funding, links to school funding and cycle training grants.
Local Transport Plan funding
This funding is not ring-fenced and local authorities have discretion to spend their allocations in line with their priorities. It is not possible to calculate funding on cycling by head of population.
Cycle City and Town funding
The Department funds 18 cycle city and towns. Funding for the first six cycle demonstration towns between 2005 and 2010-11 is £5 per head annually and for the second round of cycle city and towns between 2008 and 2010-11 at £8 per head annually. These figures relate to the cycle town area, which may not always be the same as the local authority. In some cases, towns have bid for additional funding.
Links to schools
The Department funds links to school to encourage cycling and walking to schools. As these are linked to individual schools, it is not meaningful to relate this to annual funding per head of population.
Cycle training grants
Local authorities apply for grants to train school children in Bikeability level 2. Bikeability level 2 is an approved cycle training course normally undertaken by children in years five to six (ages 10-11). The grants are awarded by the number of children the authority proposes to train for the funding year with a maximum grant of £40 per child, additional to those they propose to train from their own funding. The Department keeps no record of local authorities which fund cycle training from their own funds.
