Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Philip Hollobone

Thursday 9th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

10. What total capital investment (a) Network Rail and (b) East Midlands Railway have provided for improvements and expansion of facilities at Kettering railway station in the last three years.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Chris Heaton-Harris)]

Over the last three years, £24 million of capital investment has been provided from Network Rail at Kettering station, with £1.13 million provided by East Midlands Railway.

[Mr Hollobone]

I thank the rail Minister for visiting Kettering station in May to see all the improvements that have been made. How many permanent jobs have been created by that investment, and when does he expect the historic canopy renovation works to be completed?

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour for that question and for allowing me to visit this wonderful station in his constituency. Network Rail’s canopy works—the canopy is truly beautiful, Mr Speaker—are planned for completion by the end of November this year. Network Rail’s works at Kettering, including the mainline route enhancements, have created 16 jobs, while East Midlands Railway has created 70 jobs there.

Southport to Manchester Rail Services

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Philip Hollobone

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Westminster Hall

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Chris Heaton-Harris)]

This debate is all about the destination of the train. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. This is my first time responding to a debate in this place, and I look forward to going back to Westminster Hall. Some would say I look forward to its coming home—forgive my voice; I might have been singing that a bit last night.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Southport (Damien Moore) on securing this debate on rail services between his constituency and Manchester. As he demonstrated in his words, he genuinely is a hard-working, straightforward representative of his constituents. He does not mess around. I have enjoyed my interactions with him. He always finds a way of getting his way, and I hope that I can work with him to assuage some of his worries. Currently, there are just not enough passengers on our trains, so we need to get people back.

As my hon. Friend is aware, we have a rich railway history that put this country on the world stage with its Victorian pioneers, its ingenuity and engineering achievements. To continue that legacy, the Government have outlined plans that will continue to take our rail network forward. Thanks to record levels of funding that will help us to build back better, as my hon. Friend said, as we recover from the pandemic, we will also deliver the biggest modernisation programme that the railway has seen for more than a century.

Since 2010, we have invested £29 billion in northern transport. The 2020 Budget also committed to invest £4.2 billion in intra-city transport settlements from 2022-23 through five-year consolidated funding settlements for eight city regions, six of which are in the north. Capacity funding, confirmed at Budget 2021, is supporting city regions and preparing them for the settlements, and 70% of capacity funding has been allocated to city regions in the north.

More than £22 billion has been invested in phases of HS2 to deliver the essential north-south connectivity, and cross-regional rail has received a much needed boost thanks to the upgrade of the trans-Pennine mainline. Only last month we announced an extra £317 million to improve that vital route for freight and passengers, which connects Manchester, Leeds and York via Huddersfield. That comes on top of the £589 million that was put into the programme last year. A lot of investment is happening in our railways, especially in the north.

The Government are committed to levelling up the country, which is why we are planning to spend, on average, more on transport in the north compared with the south, the midlands and the east of England. A strong, effective railway is central to that ambition. As the country moves out of the pandemic, it gives us an opportunity to introduce a new era for the railway that puts the passenger at the heart of everything we do.

My hon. Friend will no doubt have heard about the plans to reform Britain’s railways with a new public body, Great British Railways, which will simplify our railways and deliver more simple, modern fares, and will bring about a financially sustainable railway that is fit for our times. The plan for rail will prioritise punctuality, reliable services and the passenger. Our trains in the north are already delivering that. Records show that more than 90% of services have been on time in recent months. However, there is much work to be done. Passengers travelling on some areas of the network are not getting the service that they deserve, and for too long people in Manchester and wider afield have suffered train delays and cancellations due to the congestion that my hon. Friend outlined around the city.

In January 2020, a taskforce made up of industry experts was formed to identify options to tackle that. I do not have to remind my hon. Friend what happened in May 2018, when infrastructure not being delivered, overpromising on a timetable and industrial action combined to deliver unbelievably poor service and cancellations on the rail system for his constituents and many others across the whole country. We need to avoid that, because when passengers come back they will expect to travel on a reliable, resilient and very clean railway. The work that commenced in January 2020 is focused on Manchester, but it recognises that the issues of rail congestion in the city itself are felt across the whole of the north, including my hon. Friend’s constituency of Southport.

At the centre of all this is the need to improve immediate rail performance in the north to provide a train service now, as well as an infrastructure plan for the medium term, that works for passengers and freight, and that will support the growing economy of Manchester and the north as a whole. With that in mind, the taskforce conducted a root-and-branch review of the timetable and consulted on three possible options, as my hon. Friend said, earlier this year. In doing so, the taskforce, which includes Transport for the North and Transport for Greater Manchester, aimed to strike a balance between providing a high-performing railway that will benefit all passengers into Manchester—before the pandemic, more than 150,000 people a day—versus changes in journey patterns for a relatively small percentage of people.

That is a big choice. It also aligns with Greater Manchester’s 2019 rail prospectus, which recognised that a simpler service pattern on the Network Rail network was necessary in the short term. That may mean that passengers need to change between services to complete their journey, but it will ultimately result in services that are reliable and punctual, which is always at the top of people’s list of priorities. The taskforce estimates that a regular commuter into Manchester could benefit by up to one hour a month in reduced delays compared with the pre-covid timetable that performed so poorly.

More than 800 people and organisations gave feedback to that consultation, which has been invaluable in developing a solution. Indeed, my hon. Friend gave great feedback to it, along with a host of experts that he brought to the table, once again, as he would say, to make that point. Although there was broad acceptance that we could not go back to the old timetable, one of the strongest areas of feedback was on access to the southern side of Manchester from Southport and Wigan. I have met my hon. Friend on a number of occasions, with and without officials, to discuss the matter. We had a very long meeting in March following a one-to-one briefing that was arranged between Northern Rail and a representative from the Ormskirk, Preston and Southport Travellers’ Association to explain the thinking and choices involved in option development.

The taskforce has really gone out of its way to reflect carefully on the representations, and continues to work closely with local transport authorities on revisions that aim to address as many concerns raised as possible, including those of my hon. Friend and his constituents. We have also given room for extra consideration by agreeing to defer any major changes until December 2022, so that we have the time to get this right. The revised proposals for a new timetable structure will soon be considered by the political leaders in Transport for the North, as well as by me and other Ministers, after which I hope to make a public announcement, including a formal response to the consultation. The train operators will then lead a further consultation in the autumn on the fine detail of a new timetable, before moving towards implementation.

It is recognised that that is not a long-term fix. Manchester is a major railway hub that fuses the needs of inter-city travel with local commuters and a huge and growing amount of freight traffic. There is no easy solution to the congestion problems, but improving the infrastructure will be critical. To address that, we are developing an ambitious programme of infrastructure improvements across the decade. The first business cases are being finalised now; once they are agreed, the work will be finished around 2025. It includes improvements from new passenger information technology to extra platforms across Greater Manchester and the city centre.

But there is much more to do to make Manchester’s network ready for HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail. The plans for the medium and longer term include resignalling and remodelling some of the busiest stations and reconfiguring very complex junctions. The designs and business cases are also being developed and are expected to be ready by 2023.

Work is happening on the ground now. In March, Network Rail was instructed to start work on lengthening platforms across Greater Manchester to accommodate the longer six-carriage trains that are now a regular feature across the north. We are making sure that stations have the platform capacity to accommodate them; work on that is due to finish in 2023. As part of a £500 million investment, TransPennine Express has introduced three new fleets into its passenger service, providing 13 million extra seats a year.

Likewise, another £500 million has been invested in 101 new trains for Northern, providing more space for customers, including wheelchair users, and consigning the old Pacers to history—something my hon. Friend both worked towards and campaigned for. Those longer trains can carry more passengers and are faster, and they use the latest technology to reduce emissions and journey times. They have also created new jobs in the region, as can be seen in the recently opened state-of-the-art maintenance and servicing depot, which is important to what we are doing at Wigan. These changes are significant, but by working together on a package of projects that deliver reliability and reflect passenger demand, they really will make a difference.

Elsewhere, I would like to reassure my hon. Friend that his bid to the restoring your railway ideas fund to improve connectivity by reinstating the Burscough curves is currently being considered. Outcomes of the bidding round are expected to be announced in the next few weeks.

I conclude by thanking my hon. Friend for securing this debate and rightly shining a spotlight on rail services between Southport and Manchester. The railway provides a vital lifeline for many people across the north, and the Government are committed to modernising the network as part of their wide-reaching levelling-up agenda. I reassure my hon. Friend and the House that a tremendous amount of work is being done, which aims to provide for a faster, more reliable network for all. Through a combination of infrastructure work and timetable changes, it will make a positive difference to everybody who travels on our services across the north. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend to make sure that it works for his constituents as well.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

We have arrived at our destination ahead of time.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Philip Hollobone

Thursday 28th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I think he can probably guess part of the answer: the best way to do those things that he wants is to vote for the deal. May I gently remind him of something he tweeted in June last year? He wrote:

“I campaigned & voted to remain. As much as I don’t like the result of the referendum, as a democrat I have to respect it.”

He should do so.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Can the no-deal Minister confirm to the House that the UK is No. 2 in the whole world for foreign direct investment after only China and that although the doom mongers before the referendum said that by now we should have been in recession, with hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, this year we are going to have the fastest growth in Europe, with record numbers of people in employment?

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I thank my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour for his question, and I can confirm that. I can also confirm that the economy has grown continuously for the past nine years and is expected to grow throughout the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast period. There are now 3.3 million more people in work than there were in 2010, and the employment rate is at a record high of 75.8%. This country is doing well—is that despite Brexit?

Leaving the European Union

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Philip Hollobone

Monday 4th February 2019 Westminster Hall

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I heard that many a time. [Interruption.] No, it is not a call for proportional representation. Members should be careful what they wish for. I was elected under proportional representation for the first time in 1999. While it was a lovely system for getting me elected to the European Parliament, it is not a good system for voters who want democratic choices to be delivered.

Parliament overwhelmingly confirmed the referendum result by voting with clear and convincing majorities in both Houses for the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017. Parliament, informed by the will of its electorate, voted to trigger article 50 and leave the European Union. Further still, in the 2017 general election, more than 80% of voters voted for parties committed to respecting the result of the referendum. Not only Government Members but Opposition Members were elected on manifestos committing to respecting the decision of the people.

We made promises and commitments to the people we represent from when we held the referendum to when we as a Parliament voted to begin the process of implementing its result. The British people must be able to trust in their Government to both effect their will and deliver the best outcome for them. As the Prime Minister said:

“This is about more than the decision to leave the EU; it is about whether the public can trust their politicians to put in place the decision they took.”

To do otherwise would undermine the decision of the British people and disrespect the powerful democratic values of this country and of this Government. We therefore cannot and must not frustrate the will of the people by revoking article 50.

Despite that, I understand that there are those who advocate revoking, extending or otherwise delaying our article 50 notice. Parliament is clear that it does not wish to deliver no deal; it expressed that last week in the House. The obvious conclusion is that we must secure a deal to deliver the exit for which people voted. The only alternative, as the Prime Minister has laid out, is revoking article 50. That is not Government policy and it would, as she said, disrespect the biggest vote in our democratic history. The Prime Minister has also been clear that other delays, such as through extending article 50, would not resolve the issue of the deal with which we leave the European Union. Moreover, as she reminded the House this week, the 29 March 2019 exit date is the one that Parliament itself voted for when it voted to trigger article 50. The Government are clear on their notice to withdraw under article 50 as instructed by the British people.

I reiterate to hon. Members that this Government are committed to delivering on the result of the referendum. It remains our policy not to revoke article 50 and not to frustrate the outcome of the 2016 referendum, which I trust will please the petitioners. Instead, we continue to work to overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities to deliver on the result of the vote by the British people in the summer of 2016 to leave the European Union.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

Paul Scully has one hour and 20 minutes to sum up the debate.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Philip Hollobone

Thursday 6th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

T4. Will my parliamentary neighbour, the Minister for no deal, confirm for the benefit of our constituents in Northamptonshire that the Government have advanced plans in place to ensure a smooth Brexit in the event of no deal?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Chris Heaton-Harris)]

I thank my hon. Friend and parliamentary neighbour for his question. I know how hard he works in his constituency, and he always puts me to shame with the amount of work he does for his constituents.

I remind my hon. Friend of the answers he has heard on this so far, before giving him some extra bits. We already have over 300 plans that we are delivering to ensure that, should we be in a no deal scenario, it goes smoothly. We have plans for our border, and he will have heard about the amount of legislation, primary and secondary, that is going through the House, and I have some specific examples.

On 2 November. Canada signed a nuclear co-operation agreement with the UK. Later in November, the Competition and Markets Authority started its recruitment campaign to hire staff to fulfil the obligations of its new state aid role. We have begun a pet travel awareness campaign to advise pet owners of the actions they would need to take to be able to travel to the EU with their pets from March 2019. The Home Office has recruited 300 people to its readiness taskforce, and it was on track to be deployed in November. I could go on.

Leaving the European Union

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Philip Hollobone

Monday 19th November 2018 Westminster Hall

[Andrea Jenkyns]

I would prefer for the Minister not to quote my tweet without having read it, so I will read it to the Chamber:

“Ultimate Brexit fence sitter Labour’s Lisa Nandy has likened those using the word ‘Betrayal’”—

I am quoting her words—

“to the Far-Right. Rubbish! What about Gina Miller who likened Brexiteers to extremists. Both Conservative and Labour stood on a manifesto to deliver Brexit. Not to do so is a betrayal.”

I did not say that she had betrayed the people. Would you please retract that, Minister?

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

Before the Minister responds, I remind him and the hon. Member for Morley and Outwood (Andrea Jenkyns) not to refer to other Members directly. All Members must address the House through the Chair.

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I apologise if I inadvertently referred to another Member incorrectly; I was talking about the contribution of the hon. Member for Wigan. I hope I did not upset my hon. Friend the Member for Morley and Outwood; I did not mean to. I wanted to point out that the hon. Member for Wigan made the case for her constituents’ views. She said—quite rightly in my experience; my constituency is similar—that views have hardened among those who voted to leave the European Union two years ago, and she also talked about how she campaigned in the referendum, so I did not see betrayal in that at all. She also made some wise comments on democracy. We had the largest democratic turnout in our entire history for the referendum, with 33.5 million voters. To my mind, when a decision of such constitutional significance is made, it is paramount that the correct procedure be followed. The ballot paper presented us with a clearcut choice, and a very simple question:

“Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union, or leave the European Union?”.

The hon. Lady will probably remember “pencilgate”. During the referendum, people on all sides of the debate were passionate about the way they were going to vote, and people on the leave side were worried that using the voting-booth pencils would result in some Government authority rubbing out their vote. It did not; leave won, and the Government are delivering Brexit.

World Prematurity Day

Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Philip Hollobone

Tuesday 24th November 2015 Westminster Hall

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, and he is absolutely right. Statistics regularly prove that we are not doing as well as our Scandinavian colleagues, and we should look at that. I know that we are doing so—a lot of work is going on in the Department of Health and elsewhere to see where we can improve.

I really want to be able to say to my friends who suffered from a full-term stillbirth that the care available to parents in similar situations is much better than it was for them. I said in my 2010 speech that the mother of the full-term stillborn baby was told at the beginning of a weekend that her baby had passed away, but she was sent away because an anaesthetist was not available, so she had to come back on the Monday to have the baby delivered.

I do not deny that there will always be stillborn and premature babies, but what matters is how we look after the parents and how neonatal units look after the babies. I am absolutely sure that in this Chamber and this Parliament, and across society, we all want to deliver the best possible care in those situations.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

The format in Westminster Hall is that we have the Back-Bench speeches and then, no later than 10.30 am because we are due to finish at 11, we will have the first of the Front-Bench speeches, from the Scottish National party, and then hear from the official Opposition and from the Minister, but if we get to the Front-Bench speeches before that, so be it.