Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether (a) his Department and (b) any of his Department's agencies entered into contracts with Strategic Communication Laboratories in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The central Department and its four executive agencies – Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Vehicle Certification Agency – have no record of entering into any contracts with Strategic Communication Laboratories or its subsidiary in each year since 2010.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether (a) his Department and (b) any of its agencies has entered into contracts with Cambridge Analytica since 2012.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The central Department and its four executive agencies – Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Vehicle Certification Agency – have no record of entering into any contracts with Cambridge Analytica, or its parent company, since 2012.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the value of the assets for which his Department is responsible.
Answered by John Hayes
The government is undertaking a wide range of analysis covering the entirety of the UK and considering carefully all the potential implications arising from the UK’s exit from the EU.
The Autumn Budget proves that the government is committed to continuing to invest in transport infrastructure and technology to deliver the best possible base for strong future growth.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people in his Department with responsibility for social media are employed on a (a) full and (b) part-time basis.
Answered by John Hayes
There are no people employed in the Department (including the Executive Agencies) on a full or part-time basis that are solely responsible for social media content or management.
There are a range of people across the organisation involved with managing social media channels alongside other responsibilities but as such, the proportion of time spent on managing social media differs across these roles and teams so it is not possible to provide exact numbers.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the expected response time is of a coastguard search and rescue helicopter to an incident in the Firth of Forth.
Answered by John Hayes
Her Majesty’s Coastguard search and rescue (SAR) helicopter base at Prestwick is geographically closest to the Firth of Forth. It would take approximately 28 minutes to reach an incident in the Firth of Forth once a SAR helicopter has taken off from its base.
This is dependent however on the weather, helicopter availability and location. The Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) will consider all these factors and task the most appropriate asset to respond to an incident. HM Coastguard also has the ability to surge up to five Coastguard SAR helicopters to a single incident in the Firth of Forth, should it be necessary to do so.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many fatalities occurred around the UK coastline in each of the last five years to which coastguard services were called.
Answered by John Hayes
The number of incidents that included a fatality, in the UK search and rescue region when Her Majesty’s Coastguard was called, in each of the last five years is shown below:
Year | Fatalities |
2012 | 416 |
2013 | 427 |
2014 | 424 |
2015 | 407 |
2016 | 381 |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to review the location and number of HM Coastguard (a) employees and (b) search and rescue helicopters serving the Firth of Forth and south-east Scotland.
Answered by John Hayes
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency continually monitors the services that Her Majesty’s Coastguard provides around the whole of the United Kingdom.
As a result, there are currently no plans to specifically review the number or the location of Coastguard employees across its whole UK operation.
Coastguards on the national network do not operate with fixed geographic boundaries and are able to coordinate any incident around the UK Coast, irrespective of their physical location. Workload is balanced across the whole network rather than on a centre by centre basis and incidents managed locally, supported by the whole network when required.
The current contract for the UK’s search and rescue (SAR) helicopter service will operate until 2023-2024. As part of the contract renewal process, an assurance review of the existing SAR helicopter service will be undertaken independently, which will feed in to the tender for the next contract.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents in the Firth of Forth required a response from coastguard services in the last three years; and what the time was from callout to arrival for each incident.
Answered by John Hayes
The number of incidents that required a response coordinated by Her Majesty’s Coastguard in the Firth of Forth in each of the last three years was 4 in 2014, 26 in 2015 and 27 in 2016.
The details of the times from callout to arrival for each of these incidents is show below:
Year | Incident date | Time taken from the creation of the incident to the on-scene time (hh:mm:ss) |
2014 | 23/05/2014 | 00:38:00 |
26/06/2014 | 00:44:52 | |
20/09/2014 | 00:27:22 | |
12/10/2014 | 00:32:54 | |
2015 | 03/07/2015 | 00:32:11 |
05/07/2015 | 00:32:23 | |
06/07/2015 | 00:27:15 | |
15/07/2015 | 00:30:26 | |
22/07/2015 | 00:22:08 | |
06/08/2015 | 00:09:45 | |
14/08/2015 | 00:48:45 | |
16/08/2015 | 00:26:08 | |
21/08/2015 | 00:45:00 | |
22/08/2015 | 00:22:38 | |
23/08/2015 | 00:06:47 | |
26/08/2015 | 00:28:33 | |
29/08/2015 | 00:14:03 | |
29/08/2015 | 00:04:42 | |
05/09/2015 | 00:15:09 | |
15/09/2015 | 00:34:34 | |
19/09/2015 | 00:16:58 | |
30/09/2015 | 01:20:26 | |
06/10/2015 | 00:29:42 | |
20/10/2015 | 00:36:45 | |
01/11/2015 | 00:19:52 | |
07/11/2015 | 00:58:57 | |
12/11/2015 | 00:22:18 | |
12/11/2015 | 00:54:23 | |
13/11/2015 | 00:44:06 | |
19/12/2015 | 00:21:13 | |
2016 | 15/01/2016 | 00:29:36 |
25/01/2016 | 00:55:26 | |
09/02/2016 | 00:36:00 | |
03/03/2016 | 00:21:06 | |
15/03/2016 | 00:23:00 | |
28/03/2016 | 00:01:35 | |
24/04/2016 | 00:08:22 | |
30/04/2016 | 00:17:21 | |
30/04/2016 | 00:21:43 | |
09/05/2016 | 00:26:30 | |
24/05/2016 | 00:03:01 | |
28/05/2016 | 00:14:30 | |
02/06/2016 | 01:40:33 | |
04/06/2016 | 00:31:56 | |
07/06/2016 | 00:21:19 | |
18/06/2016 | 00:41:55 | |
20/06/2016 | 00:26:59 | |
07/07/2016 | 00:25:16 | |
19/07/2016 | 01:04:18 | |
01/08/2016 | 00:57:33 | |
01/08/2016 | 00:29:00 | |
06/08/2016 | 00:21:16 | |
13/08/2016 | 00:27:44 | |
27/08/2016 | 00:25:33 | |
11/10/2016 | 00:18:58 | |
20/10/2016 | 00:09:30 | |
31/12/2016 | 00:43:01 |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many public engagements for which a media calling notice was issued were attended by a departmental Minister in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by John Hayes
The Department does not record such information in a central log and it could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many motor vehicles in each vehicle excise duty class are registered to Scottish addresses by registration (a) before and (b) after 1 April 2017.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The vehicle database changes on a daily basis. The most recent figures show a total of 3,123,773 motor vehicles were registered to Scottish addresses.
Out of the vehicle excise duty (VED) classes, 20 are exempt from payment of VED. Further information on vehicle excise duty rates can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-of-vehicle-tax-v149.
The following table shows the number of motor vehicles registered in Scotland for use on the public road in the vehicle excise duty classes listed.
Tax Class | Vehicles First Registered *(a) | Vehicles First Registered *(b) | Total |
Agricultural Machine | 50,487 | 388 | 50,875 |
Alternative Fuel Car | 14,570 | 223 | 14,793 |
Ambulance | 1,257 | 6 | 1,263 |
Powered Bicycle | 122,472 | 931 | 123,403 |
Bus | 13,467 | 94 | 13,561 |
Crown Vehicle | 1,259 | 4 | 1,263 |
Diesel Car | 913,973 | 3,037 | 917,010 |
Disabled | 109,835 | 2,556 | 112,391 |
Disabled Passenger Vehicle | 718 | 1 | 719 |
Electric Motorcycle | 105 | 0 | 105 |
Electric Vehicle | 2,875 | 68 | 2,943 |
EURO 4 Light Goods Vehicle | 8,396 | 1 | 8,397 |
Fire Engine | 839 | 2 | 841 |
Fire Service | 712 | 3 | 715 |
General Haulage | 117 | 0 | 117 |
Gritting Machine | 486 | 0 | 486 |
HGV | 33,106 | 407 | 33,513 |
HGV Combined Transport | 52 | 0 | 52 |
Historic Vehicle | 30,592 | 53 | 30,645 |
Lifeboat Haulage | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Light Goods Vehicle | 251,007 | 1,834 | 252,841 |
Lighthouse Authority | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Limited Use | 4,642 | 11 | 4,653 |
Mine Rescue | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Mowing Machine | 1,403 | 36 | 1,439 |
NHS Vehicle | 1,148 | 9 | 1,157 |
Petrol Car | 1,334,611 | 5,171 | 1,339,782 |
Police | 1,982 | 2 | 1,984 |
Private HGV | 4,961 | 33 | 4,994 |
Private Light Goods | 182,858 | 308 | 183,166 |
Recovery Vehicle | 1,287 | 2 | 1,289 |
Reduced Pollution Bus | 210 | 0 | 210 |
Reduced Pollution HGV | 925 | 0 | 925 |
Reduced Pollution Special Types | 12 | 0 | 12 |
Reduced Pollution Trailer HGV | 36 | 0 | 36 |
Small Island Vehicles | 648 | 1 | 649 |
Snow Plough | 104 | 0 | 104 |
Special Types | 416 | 16 | 432 |
Special Vehicle | 14,143 | 272 | 14,415 |
Special Vehicle Trailer Duty | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Steam | 30 | 0 | 30 |
Trailer HGV | 896 | 6 | 902 |
Powered Tricycle | 1,636 | 2 | 1,638 |
Grand Total | 3,108,196 | 15,477 | 3,123,773 |
* (a) up to 31 March 2017
* (b) on or after 1 April 2017