HC Deb 20 December 1995 vol 268 cc1167-8W
Mr. Beggs

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when the defect to the road surface at Councillors road, Carrickfergus which was repaired on 14 April, was first notified to the Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland) road service, as requiring repair, prior to notification of the accident which occurred on 13 April. [7365]

Mr. Moss

The defect in question was first reported to the Department's roads service on 14 April 1995.

have internal systems in place which ensure adequately that maintenance funding is applied properly and used to good effect; [6052]

(4) if DENI will be reviewing its existing arrangements in respect of the number of its branches dealing with estate management; [6054]

(5) what was the recurrent expenditure on the repair and maintenance of the education and library boards' estates during 1994–95 (a) in total; and (b) by hoard: and on what was spent; [6028]

(6) what mechanisms exists to facilitate the centralisation of estate management functions by the education and library boards; [6053]

(7) what proposals (a) DENI; and (b) education and library boards have to review the level of funding allocated to repair and maintenance of board property; [6051]

(8) how much of the maintenance expenditure has been spent on day-to-day maintenance; and how much on planned work in each of the education and library boards in the last five years. [6055]

Mr. Ancram

These questions all relate to issues covered by the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland, "Education and Library Boards: Maintenance of Board Property", which was published on 7 December 1995. In these circumstances it is appropriate for me to amplify only material contained in the report itself.

Expenditure by the education and library boards on maintenance over the last five years is set out in the table. This relates to a wide range of maintenance work on controlled and maintained schools, further education colleges and other board property—this included electrical re-wiring, boiler and mechanical replacements, re-roofing, window replacement, painting, ground maintenance, energy efficiency measures, re-pointing of brickwork and concrete repairs. The division of expenditure between plan end and response maintenance is not readily available other than for 1994–95.