Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of correspondence sent by hon. Members to his Department received a substantive response within the service standard in each month of (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government recognises the great importance of the effective and timely handling of correspondence.
The Cabinet Office is currently compiling data on the timeliness of responses to Hon. and Rt Hon. members from Government Departments and Agencies. This data will be released, and made available to Members, in due course.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing foreign travel for people separated from their partners regardless of marital status during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
There are a range of border measures in place to protect the UK from the importation of coronavirus and variants of concern (VoCs), including self-isolation, managed quarantine and testing. These measures are kept under regular review.
Restrictions for England introduced on 29 March 2021 remain in place meaning everyone must “Stay in the UK” unless travelling for a very limited set of reasons. The limited number of exemptions from enhanced border measures for travellers are kept under regular review to ensure they are only in place while absolutely necessary.
The government unveiled a roadmap by which international travel restrictions could be lifted no earlier than 17 May 2020. The Global Travel Taskforce (GTT) developed a framework for a safe, sustainable and robust return to non-essential travel, that is risk based and does not compromise UK public health. The government will confirm by early May whether non-essential international travel can resume from 17 May.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing foreign travel for people separated from their partners regardless of martial status during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The decision to introduce enhanced border measures is in direct response to scientific and medical data, which represents an increased risk to UK public health and an increased risk of community transmission of the new COVID-19 variants identified in other countries. These are intended to be temporary measures and the government keeps data for countries and territories under constant review.
The government has made it consistently clear that it will take decisive action to contain the virus, including adding further countries to the red list if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.
There are an extremely limited number of exemptions from enhanced border measures, and only introduced where absolutely necessary for reasons of national importance. Exemptions from enhanced border measures are set out on Gov.uk and are kept under regular review.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Rail Delivery Group on offering refunds or extensions to passengers who have purchased railcards and are no longer able to use those railcards as a result of covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department recognises that railcard holders have been unable to use their cards whilst travel restrictions are in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and railcard holders have not been able to benefit to the fullest extent over recent months. However, many passengers are able to recover the cost of their railcard in a single trip over the period of validity of their railcard.
Having carefully considered the situation, we are not discussing the prospects of offering refunds or extensions for railcard users with the Rail Delivery Group.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with train operating companies on offering full refunds to passengers who have purchased advanced rail tickets and are no longer able to use those tickets due to covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In October government agreed with the rail industry that, where a passenger with an Advance ticket is prevented from travelling due to changes to local or national restrictions, change of journey administration fees will be waived and, if they purchased their ticket directly from a train operator, they will be able to apply for a Rail Travel Voucher valid for 12 months. Independent rail retailers can use their discretion to offer a credit note if they have the ability to do so, or a fee-free change of journey.
On 24 November, government announced that Advance ticket change of journey fees will also be waived for students who need to rearrange travel to comply with the student travel window.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) steps his Department is taking to encourage people to use public transport instead of cars during the covid-19 outbreak and (b) estimate he has made of the number of passenger journeys by (a) bus, (b) car and (c) rail in Greater Manchester since March 2020.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The government is clear that under current restrictions people should not leave their homes unless for a permitted purpose. Throughout the pandemic we have not regulated to restrict access to the public transport network as this could have an impact on the ability for people to travel when they need to, or for key workers to access employment. We are advising that the public follow safer travel guidance when they do travel.
Weekly data on transport use at a national level since the start of pandemic is available here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic. However, it is not possible to break this national use down by all areas/regions due to sources of the data involved for near real-time reporting. Statistics on transport use by each mode in each area will be published in due course when the full data is available.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which railway stations in London have been refurbished or rebuilt since 2010; and at what cost to the public purse.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Since 2010, we have spent c£1.93bn on rebuilding London Bridge, Farringdon, City Thameslink and Blackfriars stations, as part of the Thameslink Programme. Ten new stations are being built (or significantly expanded) as part of the Crossrail Programme, in addition to a number of other stations that are being enhanced. The cost of Crossrail station improvement works to the taxpayer will be finalised when works are complete. In addition, c£144m has been spent on other station improvements in London through the National Station Improvement Programme, the Access for all Programme and the New Stations Fund. Other station renewals and enhancements have also been delivered – this is not a definitive list of all spend since 2010.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Minister of State at the Department for Transport plans to respond to the letter of 12 October 2020 from the hon. Member for Manchester Gorton on HS2 Phase 2b (Western Leg) Birchfields Road Vent Shaft.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A response to your letter of 12 October was sent on 12 November.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if the Minister of State at the Department for Transport will meet with local stakeholders in Manchester Gorton to discuss the proposed Birchfields Road Vent Shaft for Phase 2b (Western Leg) of HS2.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government published its response to the 2019 Design Refinement Consultation of HS2 Phase 2b Western Leg on the 7th October, in which I set out my decision on the location of the vent shaft. Notwithstanding this, if your constituents do wish to continue to engage regarding the vent shaft they can still do so directly with HS2 Ltd.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to enforce the wearing of face coverings on public transport.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Since the introduction of the legal requirement to wear a face covering on public transport in England, we have seen high levels of compliance on the network. However, we recognise that not everyone will follow these rules. Enforcement officers will take steps to engage, explain, encourage and enable passengers to wear face coverings, subject to exemptions. My Department continues to work closely with transport operators, the police and Transport for London to consider the approach to enforcement. We have already introduced stricter penalties for those failing to comply with face covering regulations as we seek to curb the spread of the virus.