Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Andrew Jones

Monday 20th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

Yes, on several occasions, including in Kyiv and, more recently, last Thursday at the MOD, where I met with large, medium and small defence companies to discuss exactly that issue. There are a whole range of measures in place to increase the amount of arms, particularly arms replenishment, that can come through via UK companies. Having supported Ukraine from the beginning, we must support them all the way through to the end, and we intend to do so.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

12. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that the armed forces have the skills required for the future.

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[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

T5. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we are more secure as a country when the world is a safer and more peaceful place, and that a successful two-state solution for the Israel and Palestine question is therefore a part of our own national security too?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about that. The way that we can start along that path is that Hamas could release the 242 innocent civilians that they are holding hostage, which includes some Brits. That would open the door to starting to be able to get a resolution. That is what they should do, but sadly, I doubt that they are about to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Andrew Jones

Tuesday 4th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I will, with the hon. Gentleman’s permission, arrange to write back to him in a more detailed structure, given that the development is actually in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie).

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

Unlocking access to the grid will unlock significant private sector capital ready to come in for microgeneration of battery storage projects. Can my hon. Friend give me an update on the timing for the Winser review and the Government’s response to it?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Andrew Jones

Thursday 3rd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

As I have mentioned a couple of times, we have the biggest ever programme of bus service improvements. We have gone out to local authorities to ask them for their plans, and we have funded them to bring forward those plans. They are now coming back with the first stages in the levelling-up White Paper. We will continue to deliver more on the bus agenda over time.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

There has been clear interest on both sides of the House in investment in the future of buses, and we have a very positive bid from North Yorkshire County Council, working with local bus companies, to improve the services in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Will the Minister give me an indicative date for when we might hear of that bid’s success?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Andrew Jones

Thursday 16th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

It is interesting that the Front-Bench team have taken their briefing directly from the Mayor of London. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman did not catch what I just said: the letter that I received with the measures that the Mayor had to meet, which were outlined in an agreement, arrived on my desk three weeks late. Not unreasonably, on behalf of the taxpayer, I went back to him and asked him to clarify some of those points.

The hon. Gentleman accuses us, as other Opposition Members have, of playing politics with this issue, which is completely untrue. Yesterday, I received a long and—I am pleased to say—quite detailed letter to clarify some of those measures, but where did I receive that letter? It was in the Evening Standard, not even on my own desk.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

As the Rail Minister in 2018, long before covid, I remember that my negotiations with the Mayor of London resulted in a loan of more than £2 billion for TfL. I am aware of further loans and bail-outs since. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is simply wrong to say that TfL has not been supported by the Government?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend, a former Transport Minister, is absolutely right. There has been about £9.6 billion of waste in TfL finances since 2016. Crossrail is £5.2 billion over—it was on time and on budget when the Mayor took office; there is the pensions cost of £828 million; the failure to raise the fares while the rest of the network had to, which cost £640 million; and another £400 million of combined fare dodging. [Interruption.] The Opposition do not want to hear about the waste, but the Government have supported TfL and will continue to do so, but we will not support the incompetence of the Mayor.

Integrated Rail Plan: North and Midlands

Debate between Grant Shapps and Andrew Jones

Thursday 18th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

Listening to the hon. Lady, one would think I had just come to the Dispatch Box to announce that Newcastle will have a longer journey time to London. The answer is exactly the opposite. As a result of the plans I am announcing today, the journey from Newcastle to London will be 21 minutes shorter. One would have thought she would be standing up and welcoming today’s massive investment in the train services that will benefit her constituents. Even if she does not appreciate it, I rather suspect her constituents will.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement and I look forward to reading the detail of the plan. He has given us a complex statement, because there are many changes to existing plans, but it is absolutely clear that no Government have ever invested on this scale in British history. He should not take any lessons from the Labour party, which did nothing on the issue. Will he provide a bit more detail on the timescales for delivery? Specifically, when will people in Yorkshire be able to take advantage of the enhanced services he is talking about? Can he comment a little further on the environmental benefits? I am thinking particularly about the improved clearances for rail freight.

[Grant Shapps]

On the environmental advantages, it will interest the House to know that HS2 is being built in as an environmentally friendly a way as possible. Section 2B west is intended to be a net positive carbon contribution, not just in its running but in its entire life cycle, which will be very important.[Official Report, 23 November 2021, Vol. 704, c. 4MC.] I refer the House and my hon. Friend to pages 134 and 135, which contain the full timescale for when the various different benefits will arrive at different locations. In every case, the advantages will start arriving much, much sooner than under the original plans. All the people who say we should have just carried on ploughing on with the original HS2 plan need to explain why it was right to wait until the 2040s for their constituents to feel the benefits. This way, the benefits will start to be felt by this Christmas, when work gets under way on the midland main line and from work already under way on the TransPennine route.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Andrew Jones

Thursday 9th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

Mr Speaker, I will be brief. This is the problem of having a pre-written statement. The hon. Member heard the previous answer—a 50% increase in the number of tests. He is right that it is not enough, but that is why we have closed the consultation, which I have just said we will act on fast, on what will introduce even more testing capacity. The fact of the matter is that we are acting on this. This is a global crisis—in Europe alone there is a shortage of 400,000 drivers—and this is the Government who are doing something about it.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for those answers. It is clear that there are huge backlogs at the DVLA and the DVSA, and he is working to get through those, but will he also consider other measures to address this crisis, such as skills provision and signposting for jobseekers?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As well as things such as the provision of skills—I have talked about the £7,000 apprenticeship programme—we are looking at what else we can do working with both the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education. He mentions the shortages with the problems at the DVSA and, on the licensing side of this, at the DVLA. He may want to join me in trying to persuade Opposition Members to end the pointless DVLA strike, which is hurting the most vulnerable people in our society who cannot get their licences back, including those who drive HGVs.

Britain’s Railways

Debate between Grant Shapps and Andrew Jones

Thursday 20th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I am sorry that the hon. Lady does not agree with quite a number of her colleagues across this House. Rather than dogma and worrying about whether it is public or private, as if there is some sort of clause IV incentive to set this up in a particular way, why do we not just do what works for commuters and for passengers? There was nothing about British Rail that worked last time in favour of passengers—except for, as I say, closing stations, closing track, serving terrible sandwiches. I do not know why we would want to go back to those days and this Government will not do that. Instead, we will do what works, and what has been working is doubling the number of miles that passengers have been taking on trains to the highest on record by 2019, before covid. The reforms today with Great British Railways are designed to take that further forward.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for today’s statement. Over the last 25 years, we have seen passenger numbers grow to 1.8 billion a year, up to the pandemic, of course, and we have seen service levels grow to 140,000 services per week. They are both at the highest level ever in British history, so he has a successful platform, shall we say, on which to build. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] Thank you. This was due to innovation, competition and, above all, a focus on customers. Can he expand a little more on how that focus on the customer will be maintained in the new structure?

[Grant Shapps]

We are honoured to be surrounded by successful former train Ministers in the House today, and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend not only for having been a great train Minister but for knowing exactly how many passengers—1.8 billion—travelled in the last, most successful ever year for our railways, which was 2019, before covid. He will be pleased to hear that the entirety of the White Paper is written on the premise of putting the passenger first and working out what they need, which is not very complicated: trains that run on time, are comfortable—warm in winter, cooled in the summer—and have wi-fi available. And no more of those uncomfortable cardboard ironing board seats either! People want to find it easy and comfortable to get on, with tickets that are easily available and contactless, as other hon. Friends have mentioned. That is the way that we will take the numbers back to 1.8 billion and beyond.