To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to announce which local transport authorities will become centres of excellence; and how much each will receive as a consequence. (82213)

Authorities in 17 local transport plan areas were awarded centres of excellence status for local transport delivery in February 2005. A total of £100,000 per year is available to support them in providing peer-led activities. The distribution of this funding between the authorities is related to exactly what particular authorities do as centres of excellence.

Centres of excellence status will be reviewed in 2007.

There are more details about the centres of excellence, including a list of the designated authorities, in a Department for Transport release dated 25 February 2005, available on the Government News Network website (www.gnn.gov.uk).

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how the success of the local transport authorities centres of excellence programme was measured. (82214)

The centres of excellence programme is a part of the Local Transport Plan policy. Work is under way to evaluate the success of the policy as a whole.

An interim report is published on the Department for Transport website (www.dft.gov.uk)—under research, within the local transport plan subsection of the regional and local transport section of the site.