HL Deb 13 July 1992 vol 539 cc9-11WA
Lord Beaverbrook

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What progress has been made in implementing the recommendations of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission's 5th June report on London Underground Limited.

The Earl of Caithness

London Underground Limited (LUL) are today publishing their 12 month response to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) report detailing the progress which has been made in implementing the report's recommendation. Since the publication of the report last year, LUL have 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

in each of Germany, France, Holland, Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom in (a) each year 1982–1991 and (b) in each of January, February, March, April and May 1992.

Earl Howe

The information requested is as follows: altogether, and work is underway to implement the others, which are of a longer term nature. In their 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 form 1992–93, the vast bulk of which 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 their company plan, designed to bring about a steep change in 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 there was inadequate political commitment to the Underground's planning process. 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 27th 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. We are confident that LUL are committed to continuing to build on all these initiatives, and fulfilling the promise made in their response to "transform the services provided so that London will have an Underground to be proud or,

Copies of LUL's response have been place in the Library. We will be continuing to pay close attention to progress on implementing the remaining recom-mendations. A third and final response will be made in two years' time.