Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2020 to Question 7222 on Offshore Industry: Discrimination, when his Department's review of regulations on the treatment of seafarers will commence; when the terms of reference of that review will be published; and when the trade unions organising seafarer (a) Ratings and (b) Officers will be consulted.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Equality Act 2010 (Work on Ships and Hovercraft) Regulations 2011 were designed to harmonise legislation as well as provide full protection to the individual. We are currently considering necessary amendments to the Regulations.
As part of that review we will consider all the Regulations therein. In undertaking such a review, we will of course work with our social partners, including the relevant trade unions.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's Maritime 2050 strategy, whether the social framework for the UK maritime workforce proposed in that strategy will include steps to prevent offshore-based maritime employers from discriminating against seafarers on the grounds of protected characteristics.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
We are committed to develop the concept of a social framework, as referred to in the Maritime 2050 strategy. The aspiration is to provide clarity on the standards of welfare expected for our maritime workforce, regardless of whether they are working on land or at sea. This could include a review of all employment legislation explicitly pertaining to seafarers’ work and social protection, ensuring close alignment with the protections available to those working in land-based roles.
As a coastal and flag State, international law generally restricts the UK applying its domestic legislation to vessels operating outside its territorial waters and not registered in the UK.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities on employer discrimination against seafarers on grounds of protected characteristics.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
I have not had any recent discussions with the Minister for Women and Equalities on employer discrimination against seafarers on the grounds of protected characteristics. However, officials from my Department have been liaising with counterparts in the Government Equalities Office (GEO). Furthermore, officials have also been working with the International Maritime Organization and the International Labour Organization as part of the international work on women in maritime which has included discussions on how to prevent discrimination on the grounds of protected characteristics
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on the enforcement of the Equality Act 2010 (Work on Ships and Hovercraft) Regulations 2011 for seafarers from European Economic Area countries following the UK's departure from the EU.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Any seafarer of an EEA country working in Great Britain is currently able to bring a discrimination claim against their GB-based employer to employment tribunal under the Equality Act 2010 (Work on Ships and Hovercraft) Regulations 2011. The UK’s departure from the EU will not change this in any way.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of uninsured drivers.
Answered by George Freeman
The Department remains committed to ensuring that motorists comply with motoring laws, including the compulsory requirement for motor insurance.
Since 2011 Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) has enabled action to be taken against those who keep a vehicle without insurance. The scheme allows uninsured vehicles to be identified from a comparison of the DVLA’s vehicle register and the Motor Insurance Database managed by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau.
Keepers of vehicles which appear uninsured are sent advisory letters. Those who take no action receive a fixed penalty of £100, followed by enforcement action including prosecution if they remain uninsured.
CIE supplements police powers to seize an uninsured vehicle being used on the road. Police records show that 133,000 vehicles were seized in 2018. Since 2010, Motor Insurers’ Bureau figures show uninsured vehicles had fallen from 1.4 million in 2010 to 1 million by 2016.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to extend the application and enforcement of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 for seafarers.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
An Order in Council making the legislative changes is expected to be laid in draft before Parliament next month. This will be subject to the affirmative process and debates will be scheduled as the parliamentary timetable permits before final approval is sought from the Privy Council.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2019 to Question 221779, High Speed Two: Lancaster, if he will meet (a) the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood and (b) Lancaster business leaders to discuss High Speed Two.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
I understand the importance of HS2 to the north west and specifically to Lancaster. As I stated in my recent letter to you, I have asked my officials to set up a meeting to ensure that your concerns are heard.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will meet with the Hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood and a delegation of Lancaster business leaders on HS2 and Lancaster.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
I understand the importance of HS2 serving the North West. Lancaster will be served from Birmingham in the full HS2 Y network in 2033, as per the central case indicative train service specification in the Phase 2 Economic Case published in June 2017. On 12 February, my Written Ministerial Statement informed the House that the second additional provision to the High Speed Rail (West Midlands - Crewe) Bill includes works at and around Crewe station including the extension of platform 5 to accommodate 400-metre HS2 trains. As well as supporting the Crewe hub vision, this could enable direct services between London and Lancaster bringing additional benefits six years earlier in 2027. Work is currently assessing whether it is possible to extend the services and I would be happy to provide an update in due course
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to Answer of 17 October 2018 to Question 177342 on Railways: North West, if he will publish the public expenditure on railways in each region of the UK between 2013/14 to 2016/17.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Figures on public sector expenditure at a regional level are part of the Government’s Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) statistics. These provide statistical allocations of public spending according to where the benefits of that spend are accrued.
The latest CRA statistics, published by Treasury in November 2017, present data up to 2016-17 and are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-and-regional-analysis.
The statistics include spend on transport by all public sector organisations including the Department for Transport, Local Authorities, Public Corporations (in the case of transport, this is mainly spend by London Underground) and other Government Departments including devolved administrations.
The most recent statistics up to 2016/17 are presented in the table below. These show total public expenditure on national railways by region, and reflect the levels of both ‘capital’ and ‘current’ (resource) expenditure.
It is important to note however that it is challenging, when talking about a system or network such as the railway, to accurately break down regional spending in a meaningful way.
As a network, where the expenditure takes place on the railway is not always an accurate reflection of where the benefits are felt. An investment in one part of the country may improve the journeys of all the people passing through that area, providing network benefits that, whilst difficult to account for, are spread beyond the immediate region concerned. For example, improvements to the rail network in Birmingham can benefit services all the way from Edinburgh to Penzance.
The life-spans of railway assets also present a challenge when considering the regional spread of infrastructure funding at any single point in time. The 25-40 year lives of some assets naturally mean that there will be a cyclical nature to replacing them that does not lend itself to an even split of funding across all regions within say a five year period. For example whilst a project like Crossrail has recently caused a spike in expenditure concentrated in London during construction, significant enhancement work on the West Coast Main Line was completed towards the end of the 2000s, meaning that further significant spend on that line could be expected to occur not over the past five years but in future periods[MS1] .
Regarding spend in London, London has a substantial number of daily commuters and visitors, both domestically and internationally, who will be using and benefitting from the public transport networks in London but who aren’t residents in London. The unique scale and urban density of London by comparison to other parts of the country also means that it is particularly adapted to large scale public transport networks. Key parts of the rail network serve as international travel ‘hubs’ for the whole of the country. For geographic reasons, many of these are concentrated in London and the South East, for example, the UK's sole rail link to continental Europe (via St Pancras International and the Channel Tunnel[MS2] ).Total annual public sector expenditure on railways (£millions, nominal)
| 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/161 | 2016/17 |
East of England | 426 | 557 | 1,017 | 883 |
East Midlands | 201 | 197 | 444 | 332 |
London | 3,870 | 4,149 | 5,774 | 6,796 |
North East | 196 | 185 | 258 | 291 |
North West | 893 | 758 | 1,476 | 1,262 |
South East | 702 | 728 | 1,395 | 1,816 |
South West | 215 | 226 | 481 | 750 |
West Midlands | 394 | 521 | 932 | 872 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 609 | 391 | 937 | 741 |
Northern Ireland | 55 | 61 | 82 | 94 |
Scotland | 965 | 849 | 1,045 | 1,223 |
Wales | 392 | 427 | 610 | 517 |
Outside UK | 72 | 85 | 78 | 103 |
Total Expenditure | 8,992 | 9,134 | 14,529 | 15,681 |
1Due to the reclassification of Network Rail into the public sector from 2015/16, care should be taken when making historical comparisons.
[MS1]From evidence to the TSC
[MS2]From previous PQs.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of the funding allocated to the UK railway network between 2014 and 2019 (a) has been and (b) is planned to be spent in (i) Lancashire and (ii) the North West.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
a) Historical spending
Figures on public sector expenditure at a regional level are part of the Government’s Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) statistics. These provide statistical allocations of public spending according to where the benefits of that spend are accrued.
The statistics include spend on transport by all public sector organisations including the Department for Transport, Local Authorities, Public Corporations (in the case of transport, this is mainly spend by London Underground) and other Government Departments including devolved administrations.
This information is available for regions (formerly government office regions) only, and therefore is unavailable for Lancashire.
The most recent statistics up to 2016/17 are presented in the table below. These show total public expenditure on national railways for the North West, and reflect the levels of both ‘capital’ and ‘current’ (resource) expenditure.
Total annual public sector expenditure on railways (£millions, nominal)
| 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/161 | 2016/17 |
North West | 893 | 758 | 1,476 | 1,262 |
Total expenditure | 8,992 | 9,134 | 14,529 | 15,681 |
North West as % of total expenditure | 10% | 8% | 10% | 8% |
1Due to the reclassification of Network Rail into the public sector from 2015/16, care should be taken when making historical comparisons.
b) Future spending
Recent analysis published by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority shows that over the period 2017/18 to 2020/21, the North West will receive £1,353 of central government transport capital expenditure per head of population, the most of all English regions. This publication covers all transport modes, and does not disaggregate further by individual modes. It does not include ‘current’ expenditure or spend by Local Authorities or Public Corporations.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-infrastructure-and-construction-pipeline-2017 (page 45).