§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list those charters where non-compliance with charter standards trigger financial compensation, indicating the specific relevant targets. [1107]
19W
§ Dr. David ClarkThe information is as follows.
Charter Details London Underground's Customer Charter If a customer is delayed for more than 15 minutes because of London Underground's failure, they will give the customer a refund voucher to the value of the delayed journey; Northern Ireland Railways Passenger's Charter Allows compensation in the form of discounts on season tickets if Northern Ireland Railways fail by more than a small margin to meet their punctuality and reliability standards. For people not eligible for season ticket discounts, it allows compensation if a train is seriously delayed or cancelled, or if a seat reservation is not honoured. For all qualifying claims, a minimum discount of £1 is offered; 25 franchise-specific charters for the rail industry in Great Britain Each must have terms as least as favourable to passengers as those under British Rail's old Passenger's Charter, which ceased to exist on 1 April 1997, when franchise arrangements for the rail industry came into full effect. It allowed compensation in the form of discounts on season tickets if British Rail failed by more than a small margin to meet their punctuality and reliability standards. For people not eligible for season ticket discounts, it allowed compensation if a train was seriously delayed or cancelled, or if a seat or sleeper reservation was not honoured. There are also departmental payments made under special circumstances which are not directly linked to charters, for example, the Inland Revenue's compensation for "serious error" as defined in the "Code of Practice Mistakes by the Inland Revenue". Other departments with special payment schemes are HM Customs & Excise, the Benefits Agency, the Contributions Agency, and the Northern Ireland Social Security Agency.