§ Mr. Farrasked the Minister of Transport if he is aware of dissatisfaction with the accuracy of the statistical evidence submitted by the Railways Board to the area Transport Users' Consultative Committee relating to the proposal to end passenger train services between Peterborough, Market Harborough and Rugby; and whether he will arrange for an independent investigation to inquire into the form of presentation and relevance of the financial and other figures supplied by the Board to assist consultative committees in reporting on the hardship arising from proposed closures.
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§ Mr. Tom FraserI have had three letters about this including one from the hon. Member.
I understand that, by error, the figure of revenue given to the T.U.C.C. was £116,000 instead of £61,000; the figure for expenses was correctly given as £258,000.
An independent investigation of the kind asked for was carried out, at my predecessor's request, by Sir William Carrington in 1963. In his report, a copy of which is in the Library, he found that the bases used by the Board for compiling the financial information "are well founded and sound in principle". I see no reason for a further investigation.