HC Deb 15 February 1983 vol 37 cc99-100W
Mr. Robert Hughes

asked the Secretary of State for Transport, (1) pursuant to his reply of 27 January, Official Report, c. 499, to the hon. Member for Aberdeeen, North, how much the firm of Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners has been paid in consultancy fees; and how many times a contract has been awarded to it;

(2) pursuant to his reply of 27 January, Official Report, c. 499, to the hon. Member for Aberdeen, North how much the firm of R. Travers Morgan and Partners has been paid in consultancy fees; and how many times a contract has been awarded to it;

(3) pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Aberdeen, North, 27 January, Official Report, c. 499, how much the firm of Ove Arup and Partners has been paid in consultancy fees; and how many times a contract has been awarded to it.

Mr. David Howell

The information, on road schemes for which these firms have been appointed as main consultants, is as follows:

Number of schemes Fees and expenses paid since May 1979 £ million
Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners 1 Nil
R. Travers Morgan and Partners 2 0.5
Ove Arup and Partners 7 2.8

Five of the schemes for which Ove Arup and Partners were appointed formed part of the work of the

Personal Injury Accidents: Great Britain
1977 1978 1979 1980 1981
1. Buses and coaches involved in accidents (number) 15,548 15,443 14,808 13,814 13,083
2. Motor Vehicles involved in accidents (number) 411,558 424,573 397,595 391,870 390,736
3. (1) as a percentage of (2) 3.8 3.7 3.7 3.5 3.1
4. Bus and coach involvement rates per 100 million vehicle kilometres
Motorway and A(M) roads N/A N/A N/A 30 30
A roads N/A N/A N/A 400 376
B roads N/A N/A N/A 376 374
Other roads N/A N/A N/A 461 418
All roads 434 431 422 388 357

The figures have been extracted from "Road Accidents Great Britain", copies of which are in the Library.

There are between 80,000 and 90,000 vehicles in the country which would be classified by the police as buses

Warwickshire road construction sub-unit, which was transferred to the private sector in 1981. This firm was selected from 14 which were considered for that work.

Details of specialist work on road matters by these three firms and fees paid for it are not readily available.