I congratulate my hon. Friend Mr. Heppell on securing this debate. I recognise the passion with which he has put his case on behalf of his beloved city of Nottingham. Before becoming a Member of Parliament, he undertook work in many guises for that fair city, including as a councillor.

My hon. Friend has already expressed clearly in correspondence concerns about the proposed tramway extensions, the workplace parking levy and related issues. I should put on the record the support shown for the proposal, in this debate and through correspondence, by my hon. Friends the Members for Nottingham, North (Mr. Allen) and for Nottingham, South (Alan Simpson).

My hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, East will be aware that the Department for Transport is currently engaged in statutory procedures for considering representations both for and against the tram extensions and the workplace parking levy scheme proposed by Nottingham city council to fund its local contribution to the tram extension. My hon. Friend will have to forgive me if what I can say in responding to this debate is limited—only because we are in the middle of a quasi-judicial process, certainly not because of any lack of willingness to discuss the issues.

As my hon. Friend pointed out, Nottingham is important economically, which is why it has been designated as a core city. It is one of eight core cities recognised by the Government as the most important drivers of the national economy outside London. Nottingham city council has attached great importance to improving local transport and increasing the use of public transport, and is rightly proud of its achievements, which have received both national and international recognition. The existing tram system, Nottingham express transit—or NET 1, as it is known—has been in operation for almost five years and about 10 million passengers use it every year. It is certainly recognised as a success.

The Department is currently considering whether to give powers and planning permission under the Transport and Works Act 1992 for two extensions to the Nottingham tram system. My hon. Friend has indicated his passionate belief in the importance of those links, rightly observing that they would link residential areas, the ng2 development site, the main hospital and Beeston town centre, to name but a few places. I cannot comment on the merits of those proposals as I must be careful not to prejudice the decision that will be taken in the light of the inquiry inspector's report, but let me assure right hon. and hon. Members that we will announce our decision as soon as possible.

Nottingham city council is proposing to fund the local contribution to the tramway extensions and reduce road congestion through a workplace parking levy. It might be helpful to explain that workplace parking levy schemes are just one of a range of measures available to local authorities for improving local transport and tackling congestion. Indeed, my hon. Friend took us on a walk down memory lane in describing his working experiences, highlighting the importance of car-sharing schemes as another practical solution in helping to tackle congestion. I am delighted that he got on his bike. As the Minister with responsibility for cycling, I think that that is an admirable cause; I sincerely hope that he has his national cycling proficiency test award. I will not ask him if he still has the Honda 50. That shows the other options that are available to any towns, cities or communities, or to any of us as individuals, as an alternative to necessarily using the car.

The principle of schemes such as the workplace parking levy is that a levy is collected from local businesses for employee parking spaces with the intention of deterring commuter traffic, and that businesses will then have the incentive to encourage alternative transport arrangements for their employees. Powers for local authorities to introduce workplace parking levy schemes were included in the Transport Act 2000, along with powers to introduce road user charging schemes. Similar powers were given to London authorities under the Greater London Authority Act 1999. Any revenues from such schemes must be invested in local transport—a point clearly amplified by my hon. Friend. Originally, under the 2000 Act, those revenue streams were to be hypothecated for a period of 10 years. However, in the Local Transport Act 2008 we changed that to extend the requirement for the revenue streams to be used for local transport throughout the life of the scheme.

Decisions on whether to introduce these schemes are a matter for the relevant local traffic authority, but schemes in England require the approval of the Secretary of State before they can be brought into operation. Hon. Members will know from the statement that I made on 11 December 2008 that we are consulting until 5 March on draft regulations for workplace parking levy schemes in general. As I explained on 11 December, a workplace parking levy order, which is required for each scheme, cannot come into force until confirmed by the Secretary of State for Transport.

Nottingham's proposals for its scheme, which it hopes to introduce in April next year, are that it would operate across the whole council area, 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and if implemented in 2010, the charge per liable parking space would be £185 a year, rising to £350 in 2014. The city council proposes to provide 100 per cent. discounts for emergency services, as well as places for disabled badge holders and for workplaces where the number of spaces provided is 10 or fewer, which it estimates to be 85 per cent. of businesses in its area; that equates to my hon. Friend's figure of 15 per cent. that would be liable. The council estimates that the revenue would be 1 per cent. of turnover for 95 per cent. of liable businesses and that 80 per cent. of the parking spaces are provided by the 15 per cent. of businesses that will be liable to pay the levy.

The Secretary of State cannot consider Nottingham city council's order in the absence of an appropriate regulatory framework of specified offences and enforcement procedures. That is vital to enable consideration of whether the scheme would be enforceable. We will be considering carefully the implications of the responses to our consultation on the proposed regulations, both for the way forward on regulations and the city council's scheme order. Again, we will announce our decision as soon as possible.

The procedures that the Department is following in considering the city council's application are very similar to those that apply to planning applications. The decision-making process must be fair, open and impartial, and must be seen to be so. If it is not, it is open to challenge by judicial review. If the court decided that the legal principles of fairness had not been followed, it could well overturn the decision, leading to further delay, which I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, East would not wish to see.

Ministers and officials follow a code of practice and a code of conduct which advise, among other things, that we should not take part in a decision in which we have, or might be perceived to have, a constituency interest; nor should we discuss the case with any interested party. For those reasons, it would not be appropriate for Ministers or officials to discuss the details of Nottingham's proposals with interested parties. I can assure my hon. Friends that all written representations will be taken into account by the Minister who takes the decision on the city council's application.

I should also perhaps clarify that, in accordance with the ministerial code of conduct, the decisions on the city council's tram extensions, in relation to both planning and central funding, and that on the workplace parking levy scheme order, will be taken by Ministers on behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, because they might have an impact on his constituency of Ashfield. He will, therefore, exclude himself from the decision- making process.

Although we have yet to confirm exactly which Ministers will make decisions, in order to avoid conflicts within the decision-making process we expect different Ministers to make decisions on the Transport and Works Act order, the workplace parking levy scheme order and the funding decisions on the NET 2 scheme—that is, the extension to the tram system.

In conclusion, we recognise the potential. We recognise the passion with which the desire to move forward with the workplace parking levy and the tram extension is held by hon. Members in this Chamber who represent the city of Nottingham, and by others. We recognise that we need to have in place the proper procedures. We are moving forward with those procedures and we will make decisions as soon as possible. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving us the opportunity to explain the position.

Question put and agreed to.

House adjourned.