§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how much has so far been spent on legal surveillance and other relevant costs to construct cases against people protesting against the building of the M11 link road; how much further public expenditure is expected to bring the cases to trail; how much it is expected will be recouped if the cases are successful; and if he will make a statement; [323]
(2) if he will list the resident engineers of the various contracts in connection with the A12 Hackney to M11 link road; if he will indicate their salaries and to whom they are responsible; what discrepancies on contractors' claims on personnel matters they have discovered; and if he will make a statement. [328]
§ Mr. NorrisI have asked the chief executive of the Highways Agency to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Lawrie Haynes to Mr. Harry Cohen, dated 22 November 1995:
As you know, the Minister for Railways and Roads, Mr John Watts, has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking the Secretary of State for Transport, about the A12 Hackney Wick to M11 Link Road including resident engineers and contractors' claims and the costs of pursing injunctions to stop protestors interfering with the works.The resident engineers for the A12 Hackney Wick to M 11 Link Road are, for Contract 2, Mr P Mann and for Contract 4, Mr J P Wood, both of W S Atkins.The Code of Practice on Access to Government Information exempts disclosure of Third Party's commerical confidences such as employees' salaries. Resident engineers are responsible to the company employing them.If your reference to personnel matters relates to security personnel, I can confirm that in the last two years there have been claims containing errors or anomalies which have been discovered by the resident engineers' staff. The number of these instances has been about average for a contract of this type and all the claims have been resolved under the terms of the contract. However, if you have details of particular discrepancies these will of course be investigated.Costs of pursing injunctions incurred to date amount to about £600,000. In order to minimise costs while at the same protecting the contract from continuation of these unlawful protests, the Secretary of State is minded to accept permanent in junction against named defendants and to leave aside the financial aspects provided these injunctions are conceded.150WAn offer has been made by the Secretary of State in these terms. Whether further costs arise and to what value, will depend on the defendants and if they concede the injunctions.