Oral Answers to Questions

Grant Shapps Excerpts

Thursday 11th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Rob Roberts (Delyn) (Con)]

What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the Union connectivity review.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps)]

Yesterday, I welcomed the Union connectivity review interim report. It marks an important moment in looking at how transport can bring people together across our United Kingdom.

[Rob Roberts]

Transport infrastructure is one of the most vital areas of development needed in my constituency. I was delighted to see that improvements in connectivity to the north Wales coastline and the A55 featured strongly in yesterday’s interim report. Can my right hon. Friend confirm when he expects the review to publish its final report, and that there will be funding available to implement its recommendations, even though some cases were not mentioned specifically in the Budget?

[Grant Shapps]

The interim report did, of course, mention the A55, which my hon. Friend has campaigned hard for. I have released £20 million to carry on further work and studies on some of these routes and the final report will be released in the summer.

[Deidre Brock (Edinburgh North and Leith) (SNP)]

What recent steps his Department has taken to help facilitate transport decarbonisation in line with the Government’s commitments (a) to the Paris agreement and (b) for COP26.

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[Antony Higginbotham (Burnley) (Con)]

What preparatory steps his Department is taking on the safe restart of international travel during the covid-19 pandemic.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps)]

The Government have launched the global travel taskforce mark 2 in order to help facilitate international travel as we deal with this virus.

[Antony Higginbotham]

My right hon. Friend will be aware that thousands of manufacturing jobs in my constituency are reliant on the aerospace and aviation sector. What those people need more than anything else is aircraft in the air, flying again. Will my right hon. Friend set out what steps he is taking with global partners, including looking at schemes such as the International Air Transport Association’s travel pass, to get aircraft flying again in a way that is safe and sustainable?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. He will recall that mark 1 of the global travel taskforce introduced test to release to assist with this. Mark 2 will introduce travel certification by using schemes such as IATA’s travel pass or the World Economic Forum’s CommonPass. He will be interested to know that I have been having conversations with my US counterpart and many others around the world to get that travel going again. The report will be on 12 April.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con) [V]]

The Secretary of State just mentioned 12 April for the global travel taskforce recommendations. Is that the date on which the public and the aviation industry will know what the rules will be, or is it just the date when the recommendations will be given to No. 10?

[Grant Shapps]

The Chair of the Transport Committee is absolutely right; 12 April is the date that we will report back, and we will make it public on the same day. Travel for leisure or other purposes will not resume or be allowed until 17 May at the earliest. It is important that people realise that that is the earliest date, but we are very keen to get the aviation sector that many Members across the House have talked about back in the air, and this is the route to get it there.

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[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

What recent discussions he has had with Transport for London on a future funding agreement.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps)]

The Government regularly engage with Transport for London on the impacts of covid-19, and—dare I say?—the Mayor’s management of Transport for London.

[Bob Blackman [V]]

My right hon. Friend will be well aware that the current Mayor has increased council tax by 30%, brought TfL to the brink of bankruptcy with £12 billion of debt, even before the pandemic struck, and now wants to charge motorists for coming into the outskirts of London. Does he agree that it is time for a fresh start?

[Grant Shapps]

I cannot have my hon. Friend be unfair to the London Mayor; we do have to consider that covid has been a part of that. This Government have stumped up £3.4 billion to assist TfL so far, and we are talking to the Mayor and TfL again. But my hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that there was already a £494 million on-year deficit. Now the Mayor, through not having collected or raised the price of fares over the years, is considering a boundary tax to tax people without representation to enter London. It is appalling mismanagement of our rail services.

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[Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab)]

What plans he has to convert additional stretches of motorway to smart motorways.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps)]

Highways England is delivering its plan for 2020 to 2025, with sets of all-lane running motorway schemes being delivered over the current road investment period. We have committed £500 million to ensure these motorways are as safe as possible.

[Sarah Champion [V]]

Since its conversion to a smart motorway, the 10-mile stretch of the M1 between junctions 32 and 35A has seen an average of 68 breakdowns a month in live lanes. Each of these incidents has the potential to end in a tragedy. By contrast, in the three years prior to its conversion, not a serious incident occurred in which a vehicle was struck on the hard shoulder. When will the Government stop gambling with the lives of motorists and abandon these dangerous, ill thought out death traps?

[Grant Shapps]

I congratulate the hon. Lady for all her campaigning on this subject, and she knows that I share her passion. When I spoke to her a year ago today to explain the 18 different steps involved in the smart motorways stocktake, she warmly welcomed that work. Smart motorways have been under development since 2001 under the Blair-John Prescott Government. I think I am the first Secretary of State in 12 to carry out the stocktake and review, and I will not rest until these motorways are as safe as possible.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

What steps the Government are taking to help local authorities increase levels of cycling and walking.

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[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps)]

We aim to please, Mr Speaker.

Schools are reopening this week, and many more people, including students and parents, are therefore making essential journeys, so I am delighted to announce that today we have released another 150,000 Fix Your Bike vouchers, helping people to get on to their bikes and back into active travel. Each voucher is worth £50 and will help more people get their old bikes fixed and roadworthy again—all part of our unprecedented £2 billion of active travel funding throughout this Parliament.

[Sally-Ann Hart [V]]

I welcome the news that Transport for the South East has submitted its ambitious 30-year transport strategy, and my right hon. Friend is to have regard to that in setting policy and investment decisions. Decarbonisation is vital, and as Transport for the South East has shown, its ability to bring together local authorities, Network Rail, Highways England and others and act at scale with six other sub-national transport bodies puts them in a perfect position to help deliver our decarbonisation initiatives. What role does my right hon. Friend have in mind for STBs to help bring about the interventions needed to meet our climate goals?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: sub-national bodies are extremely important in helping to bring together what can be quite different, disparate systems within a sub-regional area, to ensure that the transport is effective but also, as she rightly says, decarbonised. I see their role as being pivotal to delivering not only good transport but our transport decarbonisation plan.

[Jim McMahon (Oldham West and Royton) (Lab/Co-op)]

Last week, I met some of the families of those who have died on smart motorways. I heard the pain and the devastation of those who have been affected by all-lane-running schemes. We last had an update on the number of deaths on smart motorways a year ago. Will the Secretary of State set out what the most recent number of fatalities on smart motorways is?

[Grant Shapps]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right about public concern about smart motorways, which, as I mentioned before, I very much share. I was the first Transport Secretary to order a review and a stocktake, which published a year ago yesterday with an 18-point plan. Tomorrow, I will have an update on my desk that I have ordered from Highways England, which will give me all the latest data. The last information I have is the 39 deaths between 2015 and 2019.

[Jim McMahon]

I appreciate the answer, but I do not think it is acceptable at all that the data appears to be at the very least a year out of date about a scheme that has significant public interest and when there are grieving families who want to know the true impact. I ask the Secretary of State to improve and to press Highways England to improve its data collection on that issue.

Yesterday, Highways England launched a campaign that encourages drivers to sing a Pet Shop Boys song as a reminder to pull into a refuge. That reduces it down to an insult, insinuating that drivers who became stranded were somehow careless. They were not. They were the victims of an ill-conceived scheme that still leaves people at risk today. What the families really want to know is, what is being done to ensure that there are no further fatalities? At the last Transport orals, I asked the Transport Secretary to pick up the phone and to reinstate the hard shoulder. Did he do that, and if not, why not?

[Grant Shapps]

First, the figures to which I refer are national statistics. My understanding is that they have to be quality assured, and it is beyond the control of the Secretary of State to quote figures that have not yet been checked. In answer to the hon. Gentleman’s last point about why we do not simply reinstate the hard shoulder— and I know that is his policy—I know from the work that has been carried out that the statisticians, who have worked very hard on this, tell us that per 1 billion miles travelled, which is the way roads are measured, there are about a third more deaths where there are hard shoulders, because one in 12 fatalities actually takes place on a hard shoulder.

As I mentioned before, I am the first Secretary of State to undertake a full stocktake and review. Tomorrow, I will have a report, and I will come back to this House and report on it very quickly afterwards. These are not new things; they were introduced in 2001 by John Prescott. However, I do absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman’s desire to see the problem resolved. It is important to know that, while I mentioned the 39 deaths on so-called smart motorways, at the same time there were 368 deaths on regular motorways, so it is very important that we take all of these steps.

On an education campaign so that people understand how to use all motorways, not just smart motorways, the £5 million campaign was one of the calls of the stocktake. Many of the victims’ families, including Meera Naran, who lost her eight-year-old son, have welcomed the fact that the Government are spending a record £5 million to ensure that people know what to do when they do break down.

[Tom Hunt (Ipswich) (Con)]

Last month, I paid a late-night visit to the Orwell bridge to meet the teams who are working on introducing the new speed limit, which will hopefully mean that, when we have recovered from this pandemic, we no longer have to put up with constant closures of the bridge during high wind, which has a very negative economic impact. I actually went inside the bridge, which is something I did not know you could do, and it was very interesting. Also, the port of Felixstowe is to become a freeport—very good news; Orwell bridge—good news. However, we do know that with a freeport we are likely to see increased economic activity and increased traffic. Will my right hon. Friend commit to the increased investment in our road and rail infrastructure to make sure that we can sustain and support this additional growth and activity?

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab) [V]]

  [R] Here in south Yorkshire, we are providing free community transport to vaccination sites for those who need it. We are doing what we can, but covid has pushed our underfunded bus network to the brink. The national bus strategy is an opportunity to make meaningful change, so can I ask the Secretary of State to reassure me that Mayors and local authorities will be given the powers and the resources needed to improve our bus services?

[Grant Shapps]

I know from our many conversations of the hon. Gentleman’s enthusiasm to get greater control of bus services in his area. I can reassure him, exactly as he has just asked, that not only is that our intention, but—and this will interest other Members of the House who have asked about it today—he will not have to wait very long at all for the bus strategy.

[Imran Ahmad Khan (Wakefield) (Con) [V]]

Inter- connectivity is vital to the prosperity of our northern towns and cities. In order to ensure that Wakefield is better connected to neighbouring communities and is more accessible, improving road capacity on routes is needed. Can my right hon. Friend outline whether a Denby Dale bypass between Wakefield and Kirklees will be considered in the third road investment strategy to better connect us with Huddersfield, Manchester and beyond, while relieving pressure on the M1 and M62 around Leeds and Bradford?

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[Rob Roberts (Delyn) (Con)]

With the impending cutting-out of petrol and diesel cars from production in the near future, will my right hon. Friend indicate what discussions he has had with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to ensure that cars can be more affordable on a mass production basis?

[Grant Shapps]

The £2.8 billion referred to earlier is designed to do exactly that—for example, investment in a megafactory or a gigafactory to produce those batteries, which is one of the largest components of bringing down the price so that cars are affordable. It is also worth considering that we already have more rapid chargers per 100 miles driven than any country in the EU.

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State will know that during the covid pandemic, the number of people using bus transportation has fallen dramatically, partly because of people’s fears, but partly because of the social distancing rules. Does that not make it astonishing that, in the middle of its industrial dispute with Unite the Union, Go North West is now packing its buses to shove passengers in? What will be done to increase bus transportation post covid? Will the Secretary of State have a word with the management of Go North West to insist that it does not put passengers’ lives at risk?

[Grant Shapps]

I thank the hon. Gentleman. I am not familiar with that situation, so I am grateful to him for bringing it to my attention, and I assure him that I will look into it this afternoon. On the wider point, he is right to say that right now people are being told to stay at home and avoid travelling. We must do a lot of work to encourage people back on to our public transport—it is important we do that—and as I have hinted to others, he will not have to wait long for a national bus strategy, which I hope will answer all his questions.

[Mary Robinson (Cheadle) (Con)]

Following Cheadle’s successful town’s fund bid, I am pulling together an industry working group to collaborate on the delivery of our new £8 million train station proposal. I look forward to working with representatives from Stockport Council, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Network Rail, and Transport for Greater Manchester to restore connectivity, and put Cheadle on the public transport map. Will the Minister agree to meet me to explore opportunities for support from his Department, and help drive that exciting transport project forward?

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[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for my second bite at the cherry this morning. I am deeply concerned that the traffic policy in my constituency is pushing more traffic on to arterial routes and disproportionately risking the health of the poorer and BAME residents there. What monitoring are the Government doing to ensure that well-intentioned pollution-cutting measures do not shift the problem on to the most vulnerable?

[Grant Shapps]

I am very sorry to hear about what the hon. Gentleman’s local Labour council has been doing with the traffic situation there. I will ensure that the Roads Minister meets urgently with Ealing Council to try to address his concerns, and those of other Ealing Members, over their traffic process.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

[R] Will Transport Ministers ensure that funding for a new junction 10A on the A14 at Kettering is provided in road investment strategy 3? Otherwise, with 2,700 new houses expected to have been built in the new Hanwood Park development by that time, traffic will grind to a halt in Kettering, Barton Seagrave and Burton Latimer.

[David Linden (Glasgow East) (SNP)]

We know that as a result of the disruption caused by the pandemic, many driving students have had to double-pay fees for a driving test. When pressed on that, the Department said that the Road Traffic Act 1988 forbids refunds. Will the Secretary of State therefore support the private Member’s Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald), the Driving Tests (Repayment of Test Fees) Bill?

[Grant Shapps]

Driving tests are among the many things for which there is a big backlog due to the pandemic. I know that because my children are desperate to take their driving tests—or will be shortly. We are doing everything we can to bring them forward, particularly so that people who have already taken their theory test do not end up in a position where they have to pay again. We are doing everything we can. We have already extended the period of time. We have an issue in that we do not want people to take their practical test with a theory test that is so old that it would create new dangers on the roads, but I will look carefully at what the hon. Gentleman has to say.

[Simon Jupp (East Devon) (Con) [V]]

Exeter airport in my constituency of East Devon will continue to access bespoke support following last week’s Budget and I thank Ministers for engaging with me over the past year. Of course, we continue to grapple with the pandemic. Passenger numbers are down 90% at Exeter airport, and it is clear that long-term solutions will be needed to ensure the recovery of my regional airport and many others across the nation. Please will the Secretary of State provide an update on the progress made so far towards the Government’s aviation recovery plan and say when it will be published?

[Grant Shapps]

On 12 April, my hon. Friend can look forward to seeing that report published. We will ensure that it contains a route not only out of lockdown for travel but, all being well, and as long the vaccination programme is going as it is at the moment here and internationally, for international travel. I stress to the House that while we are in control of our vaccination programme—44% of our adult population are now vaccinated—we do not have control over other countries’ vaccinations. That is why we think we will require a combination of vaccination and testing for international travel to work again. There is a lot to be done. We are working hard, along with my hon. Friend the Aviation Minister, and we will report back to the House on 12 April.

[Mr Speaker]

I am now suspending the House for five minutes to enable the necessary arrangements to be made for the next business.