HC Deb 16 March 2000 vol 346 cc321-3W
Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list those stations and length of line which are currently the responsibility of London Underground Limited which under his PPP proposals would become the responsibility of(a) London Underground's proposed supervisory subsidiary companies and (b) the PPP contracting companies and their sub-contractors; and if he will make a statement. [114192]

Mr. Hill

London Underground Limited will retain responsibility for the operation of services and for safety at all those stations and on all those lines for which it is currently responsible. Under the PPP proposals an infrastructure company will enter into a long term service contract with London Underground for the provision of infrastructure services—primarily, maintenance and renewal—for each of three groupings of lines:

  1. (i) "sub-surface", comprising the Circle, District, East London, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines;
  2. (ii) "BCV", comprising the Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo and City lines; and
  3. (iii) "JNP", comprising the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines.

In each case, the contractor will be responsible for the maintenance, and where appropriate enhancement and renewal, of the infrastructure that London Underground uses to deliver its passenger services, including rolling stock, track, signalling, stations and other civil structures such as tunnels and bridges.

Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is the latest date by which decisions will be taken about the two deep-level tube PPP contracts; and what residual powers the Mayor of London will have on this matter once the contracts have been allocated. [114193]

Mr. Hill

Bids for the two deep tube infrastructure contracts are due to be returned at the end of this month. No timetable has been set for the completion of contract negotiations. The Mayor will be responsible from July for a range of transport services in London excluding the London Underground, and will take over full responsibility for the Underground after the PPP is established.

Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will place in the Library the evidence which underlay his conclusion in respect of the value for money provided by(a) the PPP for the London Underground and (b) the letting of separate contracts for the same work by London Underground; and if he will make a statement. [114194]

Mr. Hill

The Government are confident that the PPP for London Underground will deliver better value for money than a wholly public sector option. We shall approve the contracts only if the private sector bids demonstrate best value when compared with a rigorously constructed public sector comparator benchmark.

The comparator will be published once the PPP negotiations are complete. To publish the results any earlier would expose the taxpayer's negotiating position, and so jeopardise our chances of getting best value.

To let a series of separate contracts could be expected to create serious scale diseconomies when compared with the PPP approach.

Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what was his Department's role in the authorisation of London Underground Ltd.'s expenditure, between 20 March 1998 and 13 November 1999, on consultancy work in respect of the PPP and restructuring of London Underground; what estimate he has made of the final cost of the consultancy for this purpose; and if he will list(a) the consultants concerned, and the amount paid to each, and (b) summarise the work each of them has been asked to do. [114197]

Mr. Hill

London Transport's expenditure on external consultants for the public-private partnership for the London Underground is regularly monitored by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. London Transport will not know the overall requirements or costs for external advice until the PPP transactions have been completed, but the Government are working with LT to ensure that we receive the best advice while minimising the overall costs of implementing the PPP.

The main consultants employed by London Transport, and the areas on which they provide professional advice, are:

  • PriceWaterhouseCoopers (financial)
  • Freshfields (legal)
  • Ove Arup and Partners (engineering)
  • Arthur Andersen (operations entity design)
  • PA Consulting (infrastructure entities design and financial modelling)
  • Hornagold and Hills (project management)
  • Insignia Richard Ellis (property)
  • Marsh (insurance)
  • Bacon & Woodrow (pensions).

For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it is not possible to give a figure for the value of individual contracts, though we will continue to publish updated aggregate figures periodically in line with the commitment given by the then Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead and Highgate (Ms Jackson) on 13 January last year.