asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the current estimate of loss of tax revenue created by the provision, or the writing off, of bad debts announced by banks and other financial institutions this year. [HL5403]

The latest corporation tax forecasts were provided in Budget 2008. Updated forecasts incorporating the latest developments in the financial services sector will be provided in the forthcoming 2008 Pre-Budget Report.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Which provisions of the treaty of Lisbon cannot be enacted under the treaty of Nice. [HL5181]

The Government believe that the Lisbon treaty is good for the UK and good for Europe. Parliament has approved the legislation to implement the Lisbon treaty in the UK. We do not support either renegotiating the Lisbon treaty or cherry-picking parts of it and implementing them by a different route.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will introduce tariffs for community-based health services. [HL5388]

High Quality Care for All emphasised the need to move away from block contracts for community services. A dozen local National Health Service development sites are testing out alternative contract currencies for community services that could be used nationally, and which may allow the setting of national tariffs in future. Further details will be contained in Currency and Pricing Options for Community Services to be published later this year.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What measures they propose to put in place to avoid variation in service provision across primary care trust areas once they are in charge of commissioning directed enhanced services. [HL5329]

Primary care trusts (PCTs) have always been in charge of commissioning directed enhanced services. Directed enhanced services are underpinned by national directions from the Secretary of State to PCTs. These directions instruct PCTs to commission services to a national specification and standards.

This year the department launched a national commissioning assurance system to hold PCTs to account for their commissioning decisions. PCTs will be assessed by the improvement in local health outcomes, commissioning competencies and organisational governance. The system will allow a clearer national picture of variation in services to emerge. Incentives will be applied to drive all PCTs towards world class levels of commissioning and poorly performing PCTs will be supported to improve, and will ultimately be subject to interventions in line with the NHS performance regime.

asked the Chairman of Committees:

What is the policy of the House of Lords regarding the retirement age of the staff of the House. [HL5378]

The retirement age for House of Lords staff is currently 65, except where a short-term extension is agreed on grounds of business need. This policy will be reviewed within the next six months in light of the recent decision by the Civil Service to abolish the retirement age for junior grades and to review the retirement age for senior grades.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many of the 182 vehicles promised to the Northern Rail franchise in the high-level output statement are new build; and when it is proposed to place the order for these. [HL5350]

In its update to the high-level output specification (HLOS) delivery plan, published in July, and available on the Department for Transport website at www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/rollingstock/hlosupdatejuly08, the Department for Transport stated that provision of extra rolling stock for Northern Rail was planned to take place in Phase 3 of this plan.

Discussions with Northern Rail continue on the details of implementation, including the proportion of new-build stock, and stock transferred from other operators.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will support the application from South West Trains to place orders for additional trains to alleviate overcrowding. [HL5351]

The Department for Transport is currently in discussion with South West Trains over the delivery of the Government’s high-level output specification capacity targets, which includes additional vehicles.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many fatal accidents there were per mile on the A55, A470, M1 and M3 in the past three years. [HL5337]

The Highways Agency has provided the data for the A55, M1 and M3 in the table below. There is no accident data recorded for the A55 in 2005 or 2006. The A470 does not have any accident data recorded for the past three years.

The figures quoted above are an approximation as the data have been calculated by dividing the number of accidents on the road by the length of road.