§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the names of(a) consultants and (b) legal advisers employed by London Transport to provide advice on the sale of London Underground and the estimated cost of employing each company. [51189]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonLondon Underground is not for sale. Freshfields and PricewaterhouseCoopers are providing, respectively, legal and financial advice jointly to the Government and London Transport on implementing our plans for a Public/Private Partnership. Competitions are currently underway for other specialist advisers.
For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it is not possible to give a figure for the estimated value of the contracts. We will, of course, report aggregate figures for the total cost of advice on implementing the Public/Private Partnership, in due course.
457W
§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many companies to date have expressed an interest in taking a stake in London Underground infrastructure. [51193]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonCompanies will not be asked formally to express their interest in infrastructure contracts until next year. But London Transport has placed a notice in theOfficial Journal of the European Community inviting firms to take part in a consultation process on our proposals for a Public/Private Partnership. London Transport also hosted a market sounding conference on 16 July which was attended by delegates from around 200 organisations.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many additional staff have been employed by his Department to deal with the transfer of London Underground infrastructure to the private sector. [51173]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonNo additional staff have been employed by my Department to work on our plans for a Public/Private Partnership for London Underground.
Internal reorganisation has taken place to ensure that adequate resources are in place to enable our proposals to be implemented as quickly and efficiently as possible.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what provision has been made for additional subsidies to be paid to London Underground to compensate for the additional costs of transferring infrastructure services to the private sector. [51192]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonThe aim will be to let contracts which are affordable from LU's own resources, on the basis of projected revenue flows. Unless it represents poor value for money, payments to the contractor or contractors will be profiled so as to avoid the need for subsidy.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what will be the contractual basis on which London Underground staff will be transferred to the private sector for the purpose of the planned London Underground restructuring. [51209]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonThe majority of London Underground staff will remain with the publicly owned and publicly accountable operating company. It makes sense for some staff to transfer with their work to the private sector contractor or contractors. The means of transfer has yet to be decided but the Deputy Prime Minister has already given firm commitments on the protection of staff rights under the contracts of employment, covering pay, hours, leave, collective agreements and unions representation, as well as on issues such as pensions and concessionary travel.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list those organisations invited to attend the seminar hosted by London Transport on the procedures to be adopted for the transfer of London Underground infrastructure to the private sector. [51376]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonAround 200 organisations were invited, including rail industry suppliers and contractors, banks and other financiers, project management specialists, legal and financial advisers and consulting engineers. I shall write further to my hon. Friend.
458W
§ Mr. OttawayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he expects the contractual arrangements for the restructuring of London Underground to be completed. [51528]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonWe aim to award the one, two or three infrastructure contracts for the London Underground Public-Private Partnership by April 2000.
§ Mr. OttawayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the outcome of the London Underground conference held on 16 July. [51737]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonThe conference was designed to start a consultation with potential bidders and their financiers about how best to implement the Government's Public-Private Partnership for the London Underground. Around 200 organisations were invited, including rail industry suppliers and contractors, banks and other financiers, project management specialists, legal and financial advisers and consulting engineers. The conference was welcomed by those present and represented a successful start to the more detailed consultation process which will now follow.