§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if Railtrack shares left with the Government qualify for the special dividend payable from this year's profits. [27816]
§ Mr. WattsAny Railtrack shares still held by the Government as at 4 September 1996 will qualify for the final dividend of 13.75p share in respect of the year ended 31 March 1996.
§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if he will list the bodies who have audited costs and liabilities for the route structure of Railtrack; and to what extent each of these bodies will be held responsible for errors in these figures; [27820]
(2) what assessment (a) he and (b) his officials have made of the reports on maintenance costs of Railtrack from the Civil Engineering Design Group; [27818]
(3) if the estimates of maintenance costs commissioned from CEDG and Atkins were commissioned for inclusion in the Pathfinder prospectus; [27815]
(4) on what maintenance estimates the Atkins Comfort letter in the Railtrack Pathfinder prospectus was based; who supplied these figures; and what adjustments were made to them before Atkins issued its endorsement; [27819]
(5) if he approved the maintenance estimate for the rail structure quoted in the pathfinder prospectus; [27793]
(6) what communication he has had with W. S. Atkins about its estimate of the cost of maintenance of the rail network; and if he will publish the figures they supplied to his Department; [27798]
581W(7) if the cost estimates of maintenance for the rail network submitted by W. S. Atkins are those used in the Pathfinder Prospectus; [27822]
(8) what were the maintenance estimates for the Railtrack route structure, submitted by (a) CEDG and (b) Atkins; how many reports on these figures were submitted by Atkins; whether all the Atkins reports were submitted to the regulator; and what the range of figures was in the different reports; [27787]
(9) what were the 10 year maintenance costs for the railways estimated by (a) the Civil Engineering Design Group and (b) W. S. Atkins; [27823]
(10) what steps he has taken to verify the maintenance figures for the route structure operated by Railtrack as given in the Pathfinder prospectus; [27788]
(11) if his Department commissioned S. B. C. Warburg to check the maintenance estimates in the Pathfinder prospectus for the sale of Railtrack; [27803]
(12) how many reports on maintenance costs for Railtrack were submitted to his Department by W. S. Atkins; for what reasons none of them were quoted in the Pathfinder prospectus; and how many were submitted to the regulator; [27801]
(13) on what basis his Department concluded that the study of maintenance costs by W. S. Atkins is a more detailed and extensive survey than that produced by CEDG of York; [27794]
(14) what assessment he has made of the maintenance estimates in respect of the rail network from (a) Civil Engineering Design Group and (b) W. S. Atkins; and what checking procedures were adopted by his Department. [27821]
§ Mr. WattsI understand that CEDG was commissioned to inform directors of Railtrack as to expected future costs of maintaining and renewing certain of it assets. CEDG's report to Railtrack was produced over a short time scale; was based on an extrapolation of a small sample; used less sophisticated analytical techniques than those subsequently used by W. S. Atkins; and was based on assumptions about asset lives which were not in accordance with prudent management of the assets concerned. Its cost estimates were inconsistent with historical spend in this area. The report was rejected by Railtrack and, having regard to the matters above and the superseding work of W. S. Atkins, its contents were not regarded as material or appropriate information for inclusion in the Railtrack prospectus.
W. S. Atkins, a firm of independent consultants, was subsequently engaged by Railtrack with the approval of my Department to report jointly to the Secretary of State and the directors of Railtrack and our respective financial advisers, to assist in the development of its asset maintenance plan—AMP—for track and route structures. This included an assessment of the policies, targets, bases and assumptions, methods and procedures used by Railtrack in arriving at the estimate of expenditure related to the AMP which is described in the prospectus. My Department received one report from W. S. Atkins which was the basis of W. S. Atkins' expert certificate set out in the prospectus. The report was not submitted to the Rail Regulator although in his conclusions on the future level of access charges he allowed Railtrack sufficient income 582W form its charges to enable it to maintain the existing capability of the rail network having regard to projections of Railtrack's future expenditure,. My right hon. Friend is satisfied, on the basis of due and careful enquiries made by my Department and Railtrack and our respective advisers that the estimates set out in the prospectus were prepared on a proper basis.
§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what factors were taken into account in the estimate of the maintenance costs for the rail network in the Pathfinder prospectus. [27799]
§ Mr. WattsAll material factors were taken into account in the estimate of maintenance costs for the rail network and are described in the Railtrack prospectus.
§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the work commissioned by his Department from Professor Tony O'Hagan of Nottingham university relating to research of W. S. Atkins on rail maintenance costs. [27802]
§ Mr. WattsProfessor O'Hagan was not commissioned by my Department. I understand that he was engaged as a consultant by W. S. Atkins to assist it in its work on Railtrack's asset maintenance plan for track and route structures.