Vital answers received at Westminster
I have just discovered that my local MP is steadfastly working on the vital issues of the moment.
With his keen eye for details and with his hand on the pulse of the Wirral West constituency he has launched a selfless campaign with written questions from the backbenches asking difficult and probing question to Ministers of the Crown!
I have copied three of these questions and the Minister answers below, but you can check them out for yourself at Hansard’s here!
On 27th March 2008 we had:-
Vegetarianism: Research
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has evaluated on the effect of vegetarianism on well-being. [195620]
Dawn Primarolo: The Food Standards Agency has not conducted any research on the link between vegetarianism and well-being.
On 20th March we got :-
Bus Services: Speed Limits
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many drivers of public buses were fined for breaking the speed limit when driving a bus in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [195626]
Jim Fitzpatrick: There are no statistics of the types of vehicle driven in speeding offences.
18th March we got :-
General Practitioners
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of UK residents not registered with a GP; and whether a recent assessment has been made of the reasons. [194419]
Mr. Bradshaw: This data is not collected centrally by the Department.
Any one seeing a trend?
March 29, 2008 at 2:25 am
hesford is getting bored of political life?!!
I give it until the next election, when he decides to run for the European Parliament.
March 29, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Dave,
you knowjolly well better tha to mention “he who can’t be named”!
It is OK however to reporduce Hansard’s as you cant issue a writt against Parliament!
Interesting questions arnt they? I wonder how much each cost to reply to?
Did you also see his recent contribution to debates on the floor of The House?
I love this one…. sorry its so long and I cant pop it into a hypertext link …
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080326/debtext/80326-0010.htm#08032669000404
March 29, 2008 at 1:55 pm
John, I trawl through hansard myself at times, and it has to be said that some of the questions posed are just exercises in PR and spin!
On the subject of road pricing in that link - do you support the re-regulation of the buses? I’m obviously not a believer in excessive state regulation and interference, but I do think the de-regulation of the buses was a massive mistake. Or at least it was, when they introduced very few regulatory controls on the bus operators cherry picking the best routes and getting rid of many essential routes because they were not profitable enough. We’ve seen this in heswall, where only the peak time bus services have been kept….trying to get a bus at any other time of day is now much more difficult, if for example, you want to get to Bromborough or Eastham. NuLabour goes on about getting us out of our cars and onto public transport, yet ignore the crumbling state of the public transport network outside of London. If they can sort that out and make some advances in public transport provision, then I’m sure they would find it a lot easier.
Just wondered what your thoughts were on this?
March 30, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Dave; as a someone that read Environmental Science at University and later went into a transport related profession I have some pretty extensive thoughts on transport management issues.
Reregulation is a misnomer. The ability for a local transport authority to let routes and mange their contractors is not regulation. It is contract performance management.
If the specification for the tendered service is poor then the Bus companies, already under pressure with escalating fuel charges will cut their clothes according to their cloth.
Hypothetically if you say you will do the service for a fixed price (subsidy) and you know that you will get a £200,000 payment for the route and you know that if you fail to fulfil part of the contract (i.e. put on a service on at 6 am and 11 pm on a Bank Holiday) you will get a £30 reduction in your fee it is cost effective to skip the service.
Bus subsidies have risen.
Bus fees have risen.
Quality has dropped.
Reliability has dropped.
Usage has dropped both distance travelled and numbers travelled
The imposition of minimum standards of service is required and should be demanded. Non profitable routes should be linked with profitable ones with penalties linked to performance on the rural / non profitable routes.