§ Mr. BowisTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission's 5 July 1991 report on London Underground Ltd.; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NorrisLondon Underground Limited is today publishing its 12-month response to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission report detailing the progress which has been made in implementing the report's recommendations.
Since the publication of the report last year, LUL has made good progress with implementing the wide-ranging recommendations made by the MMC. Work on 58 of the report's 114 recommendations is now complete. Of the others, only one has been rejected altogether, and work is under way to implement the others, which are of a longer-term nature.
In its report, the MMC identified scope for improvement in a number of important areas which have subsequently been addressed by both the Government and the management of the underground.
The MMC concluded that the underground was suffering from the effects of long-term underfunding. In response to this, last year's IFR settlement provided for a record £3.7 billion grant to be given to London Transport over the three years from 1992–93, the vast bulk of which 410W will go towards investment on the Underground. The MMC also identified scope for management improvements and efficiency savings. The underground responded to that finding with the publication last November of its company plan, designed to bring about a step change in the efficiency and quality of underground services, through improvements to working practices and an extension of contracting out. This plan has the Government's support.
Another key finding in the MMC's report was that there was inadequate political commitment to the underground's planning processes. As was announced at the publication of the Government's three-month response to the report, the Government and LUL are now working together on the preparation of a 10-year strategic plan for the underground.
On 27 May, the Government set the underground 12 new quality-of-service targets. These took on board the MMC's recommendation that new targets should be based on outputs rather than inputs and, where possible, should be measured in terms of customer satisfaction.
I am confident that LUL is committed to continuing to build on all these initiatives, and fulfilling the promise made in its response to
transform the services provided so that London will have an Underground to be proud of".Copies of LUL's response have been placed in the Library. I will be continuing to pay close attention to progress on implementing the remaining recommendations. A third and final response will be made in two years' time.