Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

Again, I do not recognise what the hon. Gentleman is saying. Our resource funding was confirmed in cash terms as well, so I do not know what autumn statement he was listening to, but it was not the one that the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out at the Dispatch Box. On his general point, as the Chancellor said, we are committed to the HS2 plans set out in the £96 billion integrated rail plan. We will set out our response to the autumn statement to manage inflation pressure in due course.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

7. What steps his Department is taking to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail and the Leamside line.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Huw Merriman)]

As set out in the autumn statement, the Government are committed to delivering the Northern Powerhouse Rail core network outlined in the integrated rail plan. Reopening of the Leamside line would be best considered by north-east partners as part of a future city region settlement.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

Yesterday, at the Great Northern conference, the Transport Secretary promised that Northern Powerhouse Rail will indeed go ahead. Since the Government know that it is going ahead, they should also know what that entails. Does it, or does it not, include the Leamside line?

[Huw Merriman]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. I am aware that the Leamside line closed in 1964, that she and others across the Chamber have been campaigning for its reopening and that Transport North East is currently conducting a series of studies into the costs and potential benefits. I will restate that the integrated rail plan stated that it would be best dealt with as part of a future city region settlement. Of course, we will await further details from Transport North East as they come out.

Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

3. What recent discussions he has had with (a) Transport for the North and (b) other stakeholders in the north of England on completing further sections of Northern Powerhouse Rail.

[Afzal Khan (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)]

17. What recent discussions he has had with (a) Transport for the North and (b) other stakeholders in the north of England on completing further sections of Northern Powerhouse Rail.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Andrew Stephenson)]

We will build Northern Powerhouse Rail, including 40 miles of new high-speed line and electrification of the TransPennine route between Manchester and Leeds.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

I thank the Minister for that response, but the reality is that the Secretary of State and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are refusing point blank to meet Transport for the North. The Secretary of State has claimed that the Government’s rail promises to the north are going to be fulfilled, so will he now commit to meet TfN to implement the plans contained in the northern transport charter?

[Andrew Stephenson]

I am sorry, but the hon. Lady is wrong. I meet Transport for the North regularly. I am happy to meet it again.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

What about your gaffer?

[Andrew Stephenson]

The Secretary of State meets northern leaders regularly. The Secretary of State established the Northern Transport Acceleration Council. I am sure he will continue to meet all northern stakeholders. But the most important thing here is that we are getting on with delivering for the north, with over £17 billion being invested in Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Transport for the North

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Wednesday 24th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Stephenson]

My hon. Friend continues to be a doughty champion for Shipley. As he will know, alongside the £96 billion announced in the integrated rail plan, we are spending more than £7 billion on road investments and more than £5 billion on buses and cycling initiatives. I am sure that his campaign for the bypass has been heard by other Ministers in my Department.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

The integrated rail plan gives nothing to the north-east and will create economic imbalances across the north, giving us all less and at a later date. If the Government were confident of their position, there would have been a ministerial presence at this morning’s meeting of Transport for the North. Instead, TfN seems to be meeting the same fate as anyone else who dares to speak the truth about the Government. Can the Minister confirm exactly what powers he is grabbing from Transport for the North and how many people are set to lose their jobs?

[Andrew Stephenson]

No one is set to lose their jobs and the statutory functions of Transport for the North are not changing. The plan delivers significant benefits to the north-east of England.

Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Thursday 4th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Robert Courts)]

I agree entirely with you, Mr Speaker, and observe that it is not only ironic, but totally counterproductive that a Member of Parliament who wished to ask Ministers about carbon is prevented from doing so by protesters purporting to care about carbon. I will do my best to answer my hon. Friend’s question, anticipating what he might have asked. I anticipate that he would have asked me, on behalf of his constituents in Windsor, about Heathrow expansion. He would have expanded on the carbon cost of a third runway, which is what is set out on the Order Paper. Of course, Heathrow expansion is a private sector project, which will need to meet strict criteria on air quality, noise and climate change. He is right to raise those questions. Clearly, the aviation sector has a big part to play in delivering the UK’s net zero commitment. Were he here, I would hope to be able to reassure him that we are continuing, through technology and aviation, to look for ways to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation, to ensure that we can transition to guilt-free flying. We will be setting out the final jet zero strategy early next year, which will show how we can support the benefits of air travel and the opportunities that aviation decarbonisation can bring to the UK. I say to the whole House and to everyone who is concerned about this issue that it is emissions, not flying, that is the problem.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

14. What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the ongoing shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps)]

I regularly meet my ministerial colleagues, and together we have implemented 28 measures to alleviate the HGV driver shortage. So far, these measures are resulting in an extra 1,000 applications every week.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

The Prime Minister was warned of this crisis way back in June, but it took until last month for there to be a paltry offer of 5,000 temporary visas, to fill 100,000 vacancies. The Government recently told the Select Committee on Transport that this crisis was going to last until the end of 2022—that is more than one whole year of empty shelves, port backlogs and rising prices. This is unacceptable incompetence. What is the Government’s plan to end this now?

[Grant Shapps]

First, it is important to set this in context. This is a global issue. I met my German counterpart here in Parliament just yesterday and it is estimated that by 2027 Germany will have a shortage of 185,000 HGV drivers. We have been taking action, and not just in the past few weeks, as the hon. Lady suggests; since I became Secretary of State, I have launched 28 measures, which are having a real impact. I mentioned that 1,000 more people are becoming lorry drivers each week—or, rather, are having their applications for a provisional signed through. We have actually got 1,000 a day applying for those forms, so we are starting to see those numbers come through. The Opposition leader tells us what his solution is, which is to issue 100,000 visas, which would completely undercut our own lorry drivers and take us back to square one.

International Travel

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I am very sorry to hear about that particular case. I have been putting pressure on the whole sector to do the right thing, and to provide either vouchers or refunds where people require them. An essential part of being able to get travel back together is that people feel, when they book, that they would be able to rebook, should they need to do so for coronavirus reasons. I am not familiar with the individual case, but I would be very happy to follow it up for my hon. Friend.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

Throughout the pandemic, the Transport Secretary has treated the travel industry as an afterthought—delaying decisions, making vague promises, creating chaos and confusion. Nearly 200,000 jobs have been lost or are at risk, and countless well-established high street agencies are now boarded up. Over a year ago, the Government promised a sector-specific support package. He keeps referring to £7 billion, yet he knows that that was purely for the aviation industry, not for travel agencies. ABTA wrote to him just this week about the lack of support. Why has he failed to deliver for them?

[Grant Shapps]

I have to say that that is a rather disingenuous thing to say about a Government who have provided furlough for absolutely everybody in every sector, including the ones the hon. Lady identifies. The support that the Chancellor has provided has been incredibly generous. I keep very closely in touch with travel agents, in my own constituency and across the country, and I understand the pressures they have been under. No one can pretend that it has been easy or straightforward, but I strenuously disagree with the hon. Lady if she is saying that that support has not been there, because the very fact that we are having this discussion demonstrates the extent to which we have been out there working to make sure that people are supported through this crisis.

National Bus Strategy: England

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Monday 15th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

That is absolutely right. I will say how I want this to work. I want Members in this House to have real input into it. Therefore, as a plan is being developed by a local authority, MPs should be on the authority’s shoulders, looking over and making sure that the new business park is included—or indeed anybody who lives in Hesketh Bank and Tarleton—to ensure that they get their services. It will be for local Members to ensure that that happens.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab) [V]]

The north-east has suffered from under-investment in transport for too long. In 2019, it was revealed that over £3,600 of spend was planned per head for London and just over £500 per head for the north-east. The Prime Minister has said the strategy is an act of levelling up, but we know that phrase is a smokescreen for gifting money to areas that do not need it but happen to have a Tory MP. Will the Secretary of State tell us what criteria will be applied to ensure that this £3 billion is shared fairly among our regions?

[Grant Shapps]

First of all, I agree, and I just said, that London has been getting a very nice bite of the cherry with its buses, and we want the rest of the country to get the same. That is the point of launching this strategy. I am afraid that I do not recognise the second point that the hon. Member made. She may be getting confused by the fact that hard-working great MPs who lobby for their local areas may just end up being successful in bringing services to their area. I have no doubt that she will join her area to that list as well.

Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

What steps he has taken to support the aviation sector to maintain employment levels during the covid-19 pandemic.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

What steps he has taken to support the aviation sector to maintain employment levels during the covid-19 pandemic.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall) (Lab/Co-op)]

What steps he has taken to support the aviation sector to maintain employment levels during the covid-19 pandemic.

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Courts]

The Government, of course, are acutely aware of the importance of the highly skilled, dedicated employees in aerospace in the hon. Lady’s constituency and across the UK. We are very much working to ensure that as many jobs as possible can be protected and, particularly through the release of the global travel taskforce, we are looking to see that demand increases and we get people flying as soon as is safely possible. It is in that way that we will most protect the industry, which means so much to all of us.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

This year, I have watched close friends and constituents lose their jobs as the aviation industry and its supply chain have collapsed, yet it took the Government until October to launch a taskforce. There is still no sector-specific support deal, and the Secretary of State sat silent while BA engaged in fire and rehire tactics, and is silent now as Heathrow is doing exactly the same. When are the Government going to start taking a real stand to save people’s jobs?

[Robert Courts]

In announcing the global travel taskforce and working at pace to deliver this complicated bit of policy, going live on 15 December, the Government have acted extremely fast in ensuring that we introduce a world-leading test and release system, which is what will support our aviation industry going forward.

Aviation Sector

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

The star award for using covid as an opportunity to demoralise and destroy its workforce has to go to British Airways. One of my constituents—a long-standing employee of 25 years—told me that after months of toxic bullying and mental anguish, she has been offered a new contract that is so deliberately ambiguous that she feels she has to take it or face redundancy. The worrying proposals in the new contract include, for example, that she may be forced to relocate temporarily or permanently to anywhere in the world. An associated company may also take over her holiday entitlement; that company will also have access to her health records and, bizarrely, the right to search her and her property. All that for a 40% reduction in her pay, while the outgoing chief executive is £3 million better off.

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

The hon. Lady has made an important point. Does she agree that because this appalling behaviour towards the workforce has gone unchecked, it has been replicated by other companies such as Centrica? Does she also agree that the Government should support the Employment (Dismissal and Re-employment) Bill, sponsored by my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands), which would stop this appalling practice?

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

The hon. Member’s intervention leads me nicely on to my next point. My constituent tells me that some of her colleagues have actually taken their own lives and some have suffered heart attacks. The Government are not powerless. They can put a stop to these awful fire and rehire practices before they spread through other industries.

Our easyJet base in Newcastle has also closed. Our neighbours in Europe, recognising the value of regional connectivity, jobs, skills and a supply chain that benefits the wider local economy, have given substantial bailouts—not loans—to their operators. They have also substantially extended furlough, which the Government here rejected outright yesterday. I spoke to an easyJet pilot who asked me to put to the Minister why the Government are not considering travel corridors on a region-by-region basis in the same way they have applied measures in the UK. It does not make sense to shut down access to an entire country when just one part of it has an outbreak of coronavirus.

I am sure that the Minister will tell us that the Government have set up the aviation engagement unit, but can he tell us exactly what it has achieved? From what I can see, it has achieved very little so far. My constituents’ futures and jobs are on the line. It is in the Government’s gift to do something. Why don’t they?

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Courts]

Yes, I am very happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and other honourable colleagues. Indeed, I look forward to engaging with Members from across the House on this vital sector. He does very well to remind me of the importance of the aerospace sector, which hopefully I will come to in a moment, and regional connectivity, which I will also comment on.

As Members are aware, this is an incredibly challenging time for the crucial aviation sector. It underpins our economy by unlocking trade, investment and tourism, and it provides regional connectivity, but it has been badly impacted by covid. The Government are clear that aviation will recover and will play a crucial role in driving our economy forward. We are helping it to do that by supporting it through the crisis.

The steps that the Government have taken have been truly unprecedented and have enabled airlines, airports and ground handlers to benefit from a very significant amount of taxpayer support. These measures include the Bank of England’s covid corporate financing facility, which has enabled the sector to draw down £1.8 billion in support, helping airlines’ liquidity, and the coronavirus job retention scheme, which has seen the passenger and air freight transport sectors benefiting from £283 million of support, with 56,400 staff furloughed. These support measures, as well as the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme, have all been available to the sector. Members will be mindful that I cannot comment on any commercially confidential matters relating to individual companies, but I can remind the House that the Government have been clear that we have always considered providing support to strategically important companies that can reasonably be expected to have a long-term viable future and whose failure or distress would cause disproportionate harm to the UK economy or society.

The support that the Government have provided has gone long beyond financial. In addition to the unprecedented cross-economy package of support that the aviation sector has utilised extensively, we have put in place several other practical measures to help the sector. In June, we published safer air travel guidance for passengers and operators, providing information that enables passengers to travel confidently by following the recommended measures to keep themselves and others safe. We have ensured connectivity between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. We have protected consumers and supported the sector by confirming that we will stand behind the air travel trust fund.

The hon. Member for Feltham and Heston asked what the engagement unit has done. Well, I will tell her: we were the first country to produce safer travel guidelines for passengers and operators; we have introduced a unique travel corridor system to support the reopening of the sector while other countries kept their borders closed; we and the unit are continuing to work to establish options for possible testing approaches, ensuring that the health of the country is protected while supporting the sector’s recovery; and we have continued to work with the Civil Aviation Authority on regulatory easing during this unprecedented situation.

As we have heard from my hon. Friends the Members for Arundel and South Downs (Andrew Griffith) and for North West Durham (Mr Holden) and the hon. Member for Caerphilly (Wayne David), these are also challenging times for the aerospace sector. The Government will be providing the sector with over £8.5 billion of support over the next three years through the covid corporate financing facility. I am particularly aware of the concerns of my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle (Andrew Stephenson) and the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mick Whitley) about job losses from Rolls-Royce in their constituencies. We have heard a great deal about job losses and redundancies.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

Will the Minister give way?

[Robert Courts]

I am so sorry, but I am short of time; I would give way if I could.

The Government do understand the scale of adjustment that the aviation sector has had to make and the tough commercial decisions that companies have faced, including redundancies. We have heard from my hon. Friends the Members for Beaconsfield, for Bracknell (James Sunderland) and for Winchester and the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Ian Byrne) on this issue. The impact of redundancies on employees and their families is serious. As Aviation Minister, I expect companies to approach these matters sensitively, remembering the dedication and professionalism that their employees have shown over many years, as the hon. Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) has quite rightly made clear; we have all met such employees in our constituencies. I commit to working openly with all sectors, as I hope companies will commit to working openly with their workforces to resolve these matters. I encourage companies to go beyond the minimum legal obligations at this time, and will be offering my support.

There are a number of things that I would like to speak about but cannot because I am out of time, including border health measures, travel corridors and testing. I apologise for not having given way to Members due to the amount that I have had to speak. I will conclude briefly by simply saying that the Government remain committed to working with the sector to ensure that this country remains the aviation nation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I am writing to the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Assembly to ensure that that card is rolled out across the whole of our country.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

My constituent, Marjorie Johnson, was badly injured when, as she crossed the road, a mobility scooter hit her full force. Seven months on, injuries to her legs still restrict her mobility. Because the scooter driver was not insured, no action has been taken against him. What will the Secretary of State do about that?

[George Freeman]

As part of the regulatory review of future mobility and mobility scooters, I would be delighted to meet the hon. Lady to ensure that the issues involved in that case are properly addressed.