Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Thursday 4th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I did a bit of research following our last exchange at the Dispatch Box, and it transpires that National Highways owns the tunnel at the moment. I would be happy to transfer it to a local group, the Welsh Government or the local council, with money for the purpose. The hon. Gentleman is welcome to take that up, and I look forward to taking up his offer of a harness at some time in the future when I can see it fully open.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

12. What steps his Department is taking to decarbonise the UK’s transport network. [R]

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

Our world-leading transport decarbonisation plan sets out how transport will be cleaner and greener, leading to healthier communities and supporting tens of thousands of jobs.

[Stephen Hammond]

I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

It is a world-leading plan, and there is so much going on in the rail industry. As the Secretary of State well knows, cars are still the biggest emitter and the biggest contributor to air pollution. The key is switching to electric vehicles and hybrids. What is his Department doing to encourage local authorities to put up more charging points so the inflection point can happen sooner?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is right. As the House is bored of hearing, I have been driving an electric car for the past two and a half years, and they are fantastic. People need to be convinced that they will be able to fill up and add energy when required, which is why we have put £2.5 billion into the process not just for grants for those cars but for the infrastructure itself.

My hon. Friend will be interested to hear that yesterday I was looking at a new design that will be unveiled at COP26 next week for an iconic electric charger that I hope will one day be as familiar as the black taxi, the red phone box and many other iconic street items in order to encourage that move.

International Travel

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Thursday 8th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to stress the importance of the cruise industry and he will be pleased when I tell him that that these moves do include cruises from 19 July. Indeed, we have enabled cruise ships to sail already with up to 50% capacity, where people have been double vaccinated. So yes, they are included, but I do have to say to the hon. Gentleman that it is a frustration that we have been allowing cruise ships in English waters, but that they have been banned from docking at Scottish ports for the past month or two. If he really wants to help those 80,000 people employed by the cruise sector, maybe he can start by talking to the Scottish Government about that.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con) [V]]

I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement today and I am listening very carefully to his answers. May I ask him just to clarify two of those answers? First, in regard to the amber list review, if one country is on the amber list on 31 July, by implication it will still be on the amber list until 1 October—is that correct? Secondly, given that VeriFLY and the EU digital travel passport are already in place, how quickly does he expect the UK to be able to join schemes to allow all foreign fully vaccinated travellers to come to the UK?

[Grant Shapps]

I must caution the House and everybody listening that of course it is the case that, while opening up today and making these announcements, an amber list country could in theory switch to being a red list country. I can provide my hon. Friend no such guarantee that from July to October there may not be changes. There could be. None the less, I think most realise by this stage that the path of the coronavirus is unpredictable and I hope that this double vaccination measure provides some reassurance. It can change quickly and I want to reassure him that we will always act to the best benefit of people securing their health going forward.

International Travel

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I am concerned about the position of airlines and airports and of the aviation sector generally—the House will be interested to know that I track it every single week. I am a little concerned about the hon. Member dismissing £7 billion of support as if it is not a significant figure as well as, indeed, the bespoke work done to help airports in particular to pay their rates. She will appreciate that it is for the Chancellor to come to the House to explain whether further measures will be taken, and I am sure he will return to the House when the next Budget and autumn statement come round.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. As I have the pleasure of chairing the all-party parliamentary group on business travel, I particularly welcome the Department’s recent announcement about quarantine exemptions for business travellers, but my right hon. Friend will know that they are restricted to a very small number of jet-setting multinational executives. The business travel ecosystem is much wider than that, so will he look again at the criteria for significant economic benefit, and instead look at just economic benefit, and set out when he might be able to widen the exemption to all business travel?

[Grant Shapps]

I am very happy to take a further look at it, and my hon. Friend is right to point to the exemptions that have been provided for large job-creating travel under very specific and restricted circumstances. To answer his question, we are best to pursue fully vaccinated status in order to open up travel further. Of course, that would apply to businesses as much as it would apply to everyone else. None the less, that is the route to getting business and other travel going again.

Aviation, Travel and Tourism Industries

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Thursday 10th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con) [V]]

Let me say at the outset that I am chairman of the all-party groups on business travel and on Portugal, and I do not need to tell the Minister how the decision ignoring the data and the illogical decision about Portugal last week have caused widespread dismay. I have been speaking on hospitality and events in this House since March 2020, as many colleagues have. I am proud of the fact that in my constituency we have international travel businesses such as Swords Travel, which was named the UK and Ireland’s top travel agency this year, but like so many it highlights the problems it has had. Unless there is clarity on the future of international travel or more Government support, if the industry is not allowed to reopen more quickly, many of the fantastic services for which Swords Travel and others are recognised will simply not be there in the future.

Like everyone else, I recognise the enormity of the support provided by the furlough scheme, which has been incredibly helpful. However, unlike retail and hospitality, the travel sector has not had that same level of specific sector support. Therefore, if the Government are not going to reopen the industry, I urge them to think about what they may be able to do in terms of grants and support for the industry. I said a moment ago that I am the chairman of the all-party group on business travel, and this is an area that contributes more than £100 billion a year to the UK economy. Business travel management companies have seen a collapse of revenue, which has decreased by some 88% since pre-pandemic levels, and the decrease in business travel trips across 10 key routes alone has cost the Government some £3.3 billion in the past six months. Therefore, when the Government reconsider, I hope they will include priority business travel destinations alongside traditional holiday destinations for the next review of the green travel list. If they cannot be added to the list, that will compound the need for further support.

I listened carefully to the Minister and, like my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), I, too, know him to be a good man, but I have to say to him that if all social restrictions are lifted on 21 June, as planned, aviation and international travel will be the only sector without a meaningful restart date. Therefore, I seriously urge him to use 28 June as the opportunity to repurpose the risk-based system, which does enjoy support but clearly is not working. He should be recognising the vaccination status of travellers. We should be looking at the replacement of the expensive PCR—polymerase chain reaction—test requirement for green countries, which are inherently low risk, and we should be removing the “do not travel” messaging on amber countries. Many of those—the testing and the quarantine-on-return measures—match the risk posed, and I urge the Minister and his colleagues in the Department for Transport to use 28 June to reopen international travel for business, holiday and family reasons.

Transport for London: Funding

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2020 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

It is a great honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir David, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) on securing the debate. It pains me to agree with the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter), which I do rarely, although this is the second time in a London debate that I have done so. He is right that we would look ridiculous if we tried to say in this debate that there has not been a fall in passenger numbers and that there has not been a financial consequence for TFL. We are clearly saying that is the case, and nobody is saying anything different.

As so many hon. Members have already pointed out, the Government have put in funding packages twice, with £1.7 billion earlier this month and a previous package of £1.6 billion, making £3.3 billion. Ridership has dropped across whole networks, but that is not what we are discussing. We are discussing whether the Mayor’s decisions had an impact on TfL’s finances prior to covid, and the answer to that question, whether one likes it or not, is a resounding yes.

The hon. Member for Hammersmith spoke about how the Mayor has improved various positions, but none of that was a surprise to the Mayor, because back in 2014 TfL’s debt position was set out, along with how sustainable funding would need to be put in place. It was also recognised prior to the 2016 mayoral election that, rather than receiving other financial resources, £16 billion of savings would have to be made by 2022. Of that, £12 billion had been found prior to the Mayor taking office, so the idea that he has been hugely successful in finding any of those savings is complete nonsense.

The agreement that the Mayor has signed alongside this funding package recognises explicitly that he has not done enough during his term of office to find any more of those savings or benefits. I will not reiterate the remarks of my hon. Friends the Members for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken) and for Orpington (Gareth Bacon) about the numerous failings of Crossrail and the fact that the pay-as-you-go freeze has not benefited Londoners—something on travelcards might have done more—and £640 million has been lost in revenue.

The fact of the matter is that the agreement the Mayor signed with the Government for the funding package explicitly recognises that his financial management has not been good enough. That is why a major section of the agreement points out that he has failed to find a further range of operating efficiencies and that an assessment of capital efficiencies and a review of the long-term capital plan needs to be put in place. That is being done only because it is a condition of the package.

Finally, it is extraordinary that the Mayor has not proceeded with the plans produced under the previous Mayor and commissioner at TfL and gone through non-operational assets not generating any revenue that could be either used or sold off. That has a direct impact on the free travel for under-18s and over-60s that we are talking about—it is good that the Government’s package recognises its importance and ensures that it will continue—but there are also direct consequences for my constituents. The previous Mayor knew the value of infrastructure and invested in new trains for the District line. As a result of the delay or, indeed, cancellation of 21 infra- structure projects, part of the upgrade to the District line, which is key to the livelihoods of so many of my constituents, has not happened. That is a direct consequence of the Mayor’s financial mismanagement.

If the conditions that the agreement imposes on the Mayor were not in place, free travel for under-18s and over-60s, which is now protected, would be at risk. That is what we are talking about this evening—not what covid has caused but what was happening prior to that.

Covid-19: Transport

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Tuesday 12th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

The hon. Member is absolutely right. On the one hand, we are saying, “Look, use a car if you can to avoid public transport”, but that is why I put so much emphasis on this £2 billion fund to promote cycling and walking. We will expand pavements. We will create new thoroughfares for buses and cycles only, and we will do those things quickly and urgently with guidance that I have already issued to local authorities. In addition, we ask them to use their thinking to create long-term benefits from this. To add to that, I have included things such as new voucher schemes to allow people to get their bikes repaired—to pull them out of the shed or garage, or from the side of the house, and start riding them. All these things come together in what is the biggest single boost to cycling and walking made by any British Government at any time.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con) [V]]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement. However, many Londoners who need to get to work will still need to use the tube and the suburban rail network. What discussions has he had with the Mayor of London and Network Rail about how quickly the London transport system can be returned to full working, so that we can achieve the most social distancing possible, and has he talked to him about the possibility of introducing temperature scanning at London termini?

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Paul Maynard]

As the hon. Member will know, we paused any clearance of ancient woodlands during the course of the Oakervee review, and that remains the case. I regularly meet the Woodland Trust—its arboricultural expertise will always far exceed mine—and I listen to it very carefully.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

Commuters from my constituency too often experience delays, so I welcome the Williams review, but evidence shows that the vast bulk of the problems are caused by Network Rail. Will my right hon. Friend commit to a complete review of Network Rail’s performance and of solutions, including its possible break-up into regional companies?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: the railways are too fragmented. They are not, as the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald) suggested, being renationalised, but we do want to simplify the operation of our railways. Network Rail is just one of the dozens and dozens of companies involved, and it leads to an impossible fragmentation that means solving problems is just too difficult. So, yes, that is absolutely what we will commit to with Network Rail.