Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer to written question 85133 on 4 November 2025, if he will instruct the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to request that data from the Certifying Authorities.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As mentioned previously, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency do not hold this data directly, as inspections are delegated to Certifying Authorities. We will engage with the Certifying Authorities to request the relevant information and will provide an update once this data has been obtained.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what her Department’s estimate is of the number of seafarers employed in the workboat sector.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport, in collaboration with the Workboat Association and the Chamber of Shipping, is working to expand the Seafarer Employment Survey in 2025 to include Workboat Association vessel-owning members. The results of the expansion of the survey will be used to provide a more accurate picture of employment in this sector in the future.
At present, the Department does not have a published estimate of the number of seafarers employed in the workboat sector.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of the adoption of alcohol interlock technology in other jurisdictions.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads.
We are considering a range of policies under the new Road Safety Strategy; the first for ten years. This includes the case for changing the motoring offences, such as drink driving. We intend to publish this by the end of the year.
In 2019 the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) was awarded a grant from the Department for Transport to undertake research into the feasibility of the using alcohol interlocks (“alcolocks”) as part of drink-drive offender rehabilitation programmes.
The research was published by PACTS and can be found at:
www.pacts.org.uk/new-pacts-research-project-alcohol-interlocks/
This research examined alcohol interlock usage in other countries.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will set out the statutory limits on seafarers’ hours of work and rest when employed on Workboats over 200 gross tonnage in UK territorial waters.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Hours of Work) Regulations 2018 apply to all sea-going commercially operated vessels, including workboats over 200 gross tonnage operating in UK territorial waters. These set the minimum hours of rest as
(a) 10 hours in any 24-hour period; and
(b) 77 hours in any 7-day period.
The 10 hours of rest in (a) may be divided into no more than two periods, one of which is to be at least six hours in length.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many flag state inspections of commercial workboats for compliance with the Maritime Labour Convention have been carried out by organisations certified by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each year since 2016.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
These inspections are delegated to the Certifying Authorities, and as such the Maritime and Coastguard Agency do not hold that data directly.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the funding arrangements are for the (a) Department for Transport Operator Limited and (b) transfer of staff from Rail Service, Rail Strategy and Reform and Corporate Delivery.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Department for Transport Operator Limited (formerly DfT OLR Holding Limited) is the government’s public sector rail owning group and is currently funded by charging its train operating company subsidiaries for services provided but also by dividends when received. The Department for Transport will be able to confirm future funding arrangements for Department for Transport Operator Limited in due course.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will publish any impact assessment for the transfer of staff to the Department for Transport Operator Limited from Rail Service, Rail Strategy and Reform and Corporate Delivery.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The planned transfer of some staff from DfT to the DfT Operator will take place under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) Regulations 2006. Formal consultation is expected to commence later in the autumn, and we will continue to communicate and share materials with staff and stakeholders as appropriate.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what her proposed timeline is for the transfer of staff to the Department for Transport Operator Limited from Rail Service, Rail Strategy and Reform and Corporate Delivery.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The proposed transfer of some staff from DfT to the DfT Operator is planned to take place for the beginning of the financial year 2026/27.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what emergency plans (a) her Department and (b) Network Rail has made for future extreme weather events.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department requires Train Operating Companies and Network Rail to put in place measures to avoid, where possible, the potential impact of disruption including as a result of weather.
Network Rail owns and is responsible for maintaining railway infrastructure to ensure passenger and freight services operate safely. Officials hold regular discussions with Network Rail and industry to ensure severe weather preparedness plans are in place with clear mitigations to reduce the impacts of weather on punctuality and reliability.
Network Rail Routes liaise closely with Train Operators to ensure comprehensive checklists are in place and to align customer messaging. Extreme Weather Action Telecons (EWATs) are stood up in anticipation of adverse or extreme weather conditions likely to impact upon rail networks, attended by Network Rail, British Transport Police, the Rail Delivery Group, train operators and the Department. EWATs coordinate the response to severe weather, for example by prepositioning people, equipment, assets to at-risk areas and implementing speed restrictions and emergency timetables where appropriate. Where services need to be cancelled, train operators will seek to provide alternative transport where possible, although there may be instances where this is not viable.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which railway routes are most at risk from (a) climate change and (b) extreme weather events.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail is undertaking a programme of adaptation pathways across the network to develop a long-term strategic adaptation plan and identify priority areas for further adaptation investment. This approach will help identify those parts of the network which may require transformational change to enable safe and reliable services to continue in the future.
Further, we recognise that the UK rail network is large and diverse, with different landscapes and communities facing different climate risks. Network Rail has produced a Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation (WRCCA) plan for each of its five regions. This allows Network Rail to better identify, at a regional scale, those routes most at risk from climate change and extreme weather events. In 2026, 14 TOCs will also submit their first WRCCA strategies. As most TOCs operate over confined geographical regions, these will add further detail to our understanding of regional risks.