Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what personal protective equipment will be provided to DVSA staff conducting driving tests; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) priority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been the safety of its staff and the wider public. That remains its priority as it restarts its services.
To keep driving examiners safe, and help prevent the spread of coronavirus, examiners will wear face coverings and have the option to wear gloves and use disposable seat covers. These measures have been put in place following discussions with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Public Health England (PHE).
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation has affected the right of recognised unions in his Department to bargaining information in relation to section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The assessment of the Department for Transport is that the General Data Protection Regulation has not affected the rights of unions in the DfT in relation to bargaining information provided under section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department is compliant with the requirement in section 3.1.8 of the Civil Service Management Code that time off with pay for safety representatives will not be set against facility time allowed under existing arrangements.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department for Transport provides trade union representatives with reasonable facility time to undertake trade union duties, union learning representative duties and health and safety duties. This is in line with the departmental policy, the Civil Service Management Code, the Cabinet Office Framework on Trade Union Facility Time and our legislative obligations. These include a requirement to publish, as set out in the Trade Union Act (2016), information relating to facility time for relevant union officials, with facility time defined by that Act as including time off taken by a relevant union official that is permitted by the official’s employer, including under “regulations made under section 2(4) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974”.
The Government recognises there are significant benefits to both employers and employees when organisations and unions work together effectively to deliver high quality public services, but facility time within the public sector must be accountable and represent value for money.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many equal pay reviews there have been in his Department since 2010; what the dates were of those reviews; and whether his Department plans to undertake an equal pay review in 2019.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
An Equal Pay Review was undertaken in 2015. An external service provider has been appointed to undertake a further Review, with work expected to be completed before the end of 2019.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the pay system in his Department has been changed to take account of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Mr G Willetts and Others on holiday pay and voluntary overtime; and whether affected workers in his Department have been given back pay as a result of that ruling.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Officials have begun discussions with the Departmental Trade Unions on making the relevant changes. Future meetings will include the Unite Union, who represent drivers in the Government Car Service.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of staff who applied for promotion within his Department from 1 September 2018 to 1 September 2019 and who identified as (a) BAME and (b) White were successful by each grade in his Department.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The way that roles are advertised as either across government or external means that it is not possible to identify promotion opportunities only available to existing Department for Transport employees.
The data which can be provided is the number and proportion of BAME and White total applicants and successful applicants for all recruitment campaigns between 1 September 2018 and 1 September 2019. The whole data set is provided because existing Department for Transport employees have the opportunity to apply for all these roles and could achieve a promotion if successful.
This breakdown provided in the table and covers the Department for Transport and its four Executive Agencies (the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), the Driver Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA)).
Grade | Ethnic Group | Total Number of Applications | Total Number of Successful Applicants | % of total applications by ethnicity at each grade | % of successful applicants by ethnicity at each grade |
| |||
Administrative Officer | White | 274 | 57 | 94% | 93% |
| |||
| BAME | 12 | 4 | 4% | 7% |
| |||
| Prefer not to say | 5 | 0 | 2% | 0% |
| |||
| Total: | 291 | 61 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Executive Officer | White | 1085 | 98 | 85% | 94% |
| |||
| BAME | 153 | 3 | 12% | 3% |
| |||
| Prefer not to say | 40 | 3 | 3% | 3% |
| |||
| Total: | 1278 | 104 |
|
|
| |||
Higher Executive Officer | White | 1186 | 81 | 57% | 75% |
| |||
| BAME | 739 | 21 | 35% | 19% |
| |||
| Prefer not to say | 157 | 6 | 8% | 6% |
| |||
| Total: | 2082 | 108 |
|
|
| |||
Senior Executive Officer | White | 763 | 63 | 53% | 68% |
| |||
| BAME | 542 | 23 | 38% | 25% |
| |||
| Prefer not to say | 128 | 6 | 9% | 7% |
| |||
| Total: | 1433 | 92 |
|
|
| |||
Grade 7 | White | 611 | 56 | 61% | 88% |
| |||
| BAME | 310 | 4 | 31% | 7% |
| |||
| Prefer not to say | 86 | 4 | 9% | 7% |
| |||
| Total: | 1007 | 64 |
|
|
| |||
Grade 6 | White | 378 | 33 | 76% | 92% |
| |||
| BAME | 80 | 0 | 16% | 0% |
| |||
| Prefer not to say | 40 | 3 | 8% | 8% |
| |||
| Total: | 498 | 36 |
|
|
| |||
Total | White | BAME | Prefer not to say |
Applications | 65% | 28% | 7% |
Successful | 84% | 12% | 4% |
More details on the limitations of providing data on only promotions.
For vacancies advertised across government, individuals need to have a verified account to confirm their eligibility as existing Civil Servants. As part of their personal profile, Civil Servants are requested to provide their current substantive grade. If individuals have not completed their personal profile we would be unable to identify whether they were promoted.
For vacancies advertised externally, individuals have the option to use a privately registered account as there is no requirement for them to confirm that they are existing Civil Servants. This means that in the instance that an existing Civil Servant applies for an externally advertised vacancy using a private account, then we cannot identify whether or not the successful individual is being promoted.
The diversity of applicants applying for posts that are advertised regionally will be affected by the percentage of BAME individuals in the working population.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the additional staff required by his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.
Answered by Chris Grayling
DfT currently has just over 160 staff working directly on EU Exit and is drawing in more resource. The department’s current assessment is that it will not require a significant increase in staff numbers if the UK leaves the EU with a deal. In a no deal scenario, a substantial number of additional staff are likely to be redeployed from other roles in Government. The majority will be internal DFT staff or staff from other government departments. These requirements are being kept under regular review.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff were employed in his Department on (a) 20 December 2018 and (b) 23 June 2016.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In response to your request, the number of staff employed by the Department and its agencies (DfT Central Department, the Driver Vehicle & Licensing Agency, the Driver & Vehicle Services Agency, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency and the Vehicle Certification Agency) on the respective dates are as follows:
30th June 2016 |
| 30th November 2018 |
| |
Headcount | FTE | Headcount | FTE | |
DfTc | 2084 | 2021.8 | 2674 | 2598.2 |
DVLA | 6244 | 5548.2 | 6068 | 5346.9 |
DVSA | 4527 | 4273.2 | 4827 | 4559.9 |
MCA | 1015 | 963.8 | 1143 | 1095.1 |
VCA | 155 | 145.9 | 180 | 170.5 |
Total | 14025 | 12952.9 | 14892 | 13770.6 |
Please note, the figures represented have been taken from end of month reports and as there is currently no report available for December 2018. The figures used are at 30th November 2018. The figures represent pay staff and do not include contractors and other non-pay employees.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of staff employed by his Department who are in receipt of universal credit; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
We are unable to provide the requested information as the Department for Transport and its Executive Agencies do not record or collate information on staff in receipt of universal credit as standard.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many equality impact assessments have been carried out in the last three years on public service reforms which impact on (a) departmental staff and (b) members of the public; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Over the last three years the Department for Transport has had and continues to have due regard, as necessary, to the public sector equality duty in exercising its functions. The Equality Act does not require this due regard to take the form of an equality impact assessment, nor does it define an equality impact assessment, and the Department for Transport does not maintain a record of such assessments.