P&O Ferries and Employment Rights

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Monday 21st March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I will, but I will come back to the right hon. Gentleman’s precise points in a moment in my speech. Seafarers’ rights and wellbeing are a matter I take extremely seriously. Indeed, the House may recall that during the pandemic I ordered the MCA to board vessels forcibly to ensure that conditions were appropriate where I believed that there may have been maritime workers who were being exploited, as indeed they were being. So I take this matter incredibly seriously. Maritime employees have not in this country, and indeed throughout much of the world, received some of the same benefits and protections that exist otherwise for workers. That simply is not good enough and it is a practice we have been seeking to end.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

In 12 years—

[Grant Shapps]

In 12 years we have done an awful lot, and I am just about to tell the hon. Lady about it. As I was saying, that is why in our maritime 2050 strategy, which she may not have read, this Government committed to a social framework for UK seafarers that will promote working, pay and social conditions, levelling the playing field with—[Interruption.] Let me explain to hon. Members who have not read the strategy that it is called the 2050 strategy but it takes place now. I do not want them to be confused by the name of the strategy. [Interruption.]

No-Deal Brexit: Cross-channel Freight

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Thursday 2nd May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

That is an important point. We have paid a reduced cancellation charge, as set out in the original contracts in the case that we did not need the ferries as a result of a change in circumstance. The change in circumstance, of course, is that the potential no-deal date has moved by seven months. Nobody seriously expects that we would be paying to have ships either sailing empty or moored at the quayside for that time, but the companies incur costs—by leasing extra ships and taking extra staff— that have to be met. At the start, we negotiated a cancellation level of payments, meaning that we did not have to pay the full amount in the contract and mitigated the cost to the taxpayer of the insurance policy that we took out.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

The private sector has no faith in the Department for Transport’s ability to undertake procurement properly; confidence has been lost. Is the Secretary of State concerned that his own incompetence will reduce future private sector investment in the transport sector?

[Chris Grayling]

I do not know what the hon. Lady is talking about because she is not being specific. She says that the private sector has lost confidence in the Department’s procurement, but that tends only to be the case if people have not won a contract.

Draft Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Monday 4th March 2019 General Committees

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Jesse Norman)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Walker. The draft regulations will be made under the powers of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and will be needed if the UK leaves the EU in March—this month—without a deal. The Government seek reciprocal arrangements on motor insurance following this country’s exit from the EU, but in the event of no deal, we are under an obligation to ensure that the country has a functioning statute book.

The draft regulations will amend various pieces of domestic legislation to correct deficiencies in the legal framework for compulsory motor insurance arising from the UK’s leaving the EU without a deal. The draft instrument seeks to maintain the status quo on compulsory motor insurance, including the requirement for all third-party motor insurance policies to cover the European economic area, along with making technical changes to ensure that insurance requirements for vehicles in the UK are preserved. It will also amend redundant references to the UK’s being an EU member state.

The draft regulations will remove specific obligations on the UK’s Motor Insurers Bureau under the protection of visitors scheme, which is commonly referred to as the visiting victims scheme. If these changes are not made, the obligations would remain unilaterally on the MIB in the event of no deal. The changes will come into effect on exit day.

While the draft instrument was initially laid as a proposed negative instrument, we agreed with recommendations from the sifting Committees and the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments to re-lay the draft instrument using the affirmative procedure, acknowledging their concerns about the impact of the changes on UK citizens. I thank the Committees for their work in considering the draft SI.

It may be helpful to give the Committee some background on the legislation that is being changed. In 1930, the UK Government introduced a law requiring every person who used a vehicle on the road to have at least third-party insurance. Today, compulsory motor insurance requirements are governed at EU level by the consolidated motor insurance directive, which was implemented in the UK through the Road Traffic Act 1988 and subordinate legislation.

The amendments in the draft instrument are necessary to uphold motor insurance requirements as they currently stand in the UK if we leave the EU without a deal. The draft instrument will also deal with requirements under the codified EU motor insurance directive for member states to make arrangements to allow victims injured in a road accident in an EEA country other than their home state to claim compensation when they return home. This is facilitated through insurance undertakings, with member states appointing in all other member states a claims representative to handle and settle claims by victims injured in accidents abroad.

Each member state must also appoint a compensation body responsible for providing compensation in certain circumstances in which insurance undertakings through the claims representative fail to do so. Those circumstances include, for example, where there is no claims representative or where the claims representative fails to provide a reasoned response to a claim within three months. The MIB currently fulfils the compensation body role for the UK and is reimbursed by its foreign counterparts under the directive.

The amendments made by the draft instrument will be twofold. First, it will make amendments to reflect that, once the UK is no longer an EU member state, the motor insurance directive will no longer apply to the UK. If we do not make this change, which relieves the MIB of obligations under the visiting victims scheme, the MIB would be required to continue to reimburse its foreign counterparts in respect of EU27 visitors injured in the UK. It would also have cost exposure for claims made by UK residents injured in the EU, without being able to seek reimbursement from its foreign counterparts.

There will no longer be an obligation under the motor insurance directive on insurance companies based in the EEA to appoint a claims representative in the UK, as is currently required. The MIB could therefore face the additional cost of handling claims that would previously have been dealt with by claims representatives. That additional cost burden would most likely be passed on to its members—UK-based insurance companies—through its membership levies. Those members could in turn be expected to pass the costs on to UK motorists through higher insurance premiums.

The proposed change under the statutory instrument will therefore relieve the Motor Insurers Bureau of obligations under the visiting victims scheme and remove the potential cost burden that would fall on it if the legislation remained as it is. In future, without visiting victims provisions, UK residents injured in road traffic accidents in the EEA will still be able to make a claim, but they may need to do so outside the UK.

The rest of the amendments make technical changes to domestic legislation that are limited to what is needed for the legislation to continue to function effectively once the UK has left the EU. They maintain the status quo in respect of compulsory motor insurance requirements.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

My question is about existing victims who have litigation under way—for example, someone who has suffered a brain injury in a hit-and-run accident in France and has litigation under way. If we leave on 29 March, the limitation period for bringing cases will change—pre 29 March compared with post 29 March—so what will happen to UK litigants after 29 March in that circumstance?

GWR and Network Performance

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Tuesday 5th February 2019 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Doughty]

Indeed. In fact, I had that experience myself on the last Great Western train that I took. There was hot water in only half of the train—there was no hot water in the toilets or for the catering services. The staff simply shrugged their shoulders and said, “We see this problem all the time.”

I met Hitachi yesterday to discuss some of those concerns. I have to say that it has been very frank and forthcoming about the issues it has experienced with engineering the new trains. Unfortunately, that is what happens if a new fleet is rushed into service without adequate testing and operation time, and without redundancy and additional rolling stock. Great Western’s old HST fleet was sold off to Scotland before enough of the new trains were ready and functioning. That is why many of the problems have happened.

I am disappointed that, despite the many meetings that Members from both sides of the House have had with Great Western management, a blame culture seems to have developed among GWR, Network Rail, the Department for Transport and in some cases the developer of the new rolling stock, Hitachi. As I said, Hitachi has been frank and honest about the problems it has faced and what it is doing to deal with them, but the net result for passengers is poor service. I am sorry to say that the managing director of GWR, Mark Hopwood appears out of touch in relation to some of the problems, and unwilling or unable to get a grip on the litany of failure over the past few years.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend share my frustration that, despite the litany of complaints about service, GWR’s franchise keeps getting renewed? The Government do not seem remotely interested in performance and passenger satisfaction levels.

[Stephen Doughty]

I completely agree with my constituency neighbour. The reality is that the service was underperforming and declining, and yet GWR was given an extension, and could be given another one. Most passengers would find that extraordinary.

Our railways are a vital public service for all our constituents. I want to cover the price hikes, the delays, the new rolling stock, compensation and the electrification problems. Trains are increasingly overcrowded. Many constituents have contacted me and have even sent pictures of the overcrowding on Great Western services, particularly on the London-Reading leg, where the service is very disappointing.

Research released this week by Transport Focus, using results from the national rail passenger survey, which focused on 1,458 GWR passengers, shows that overall satisfaction has gone down and sits at a poor 78%. Only 49% of the group felt that the GWR services provided value for money. Meanwhile, season tickets prices continue to skyrocket. They have gone up by 20% since 2010, and some tickets have gone up by 30%. More fare increases were announced at the start of this year. It is good to see the Chair of the Transport Committee in the Chamber. She made that very clear in her comments in November. She said:

“After the year passengers have had, any increase in rail fares is going to be unwelcome. But 3.1 per cent—the largest increase we’ve seen since January 2013—represents a real kick in the teeth.”

That is what my constituents and others who have posted comments on the forums are telling me.

One of my constituents, Mark, spoke about the Cardiff-Portsmouth service, specifically through Trowbridge and Fareham. He said that, until December, he was able to book in advance and get a return for about £20, but since the new year the same journey, departing and arriving at the same time, has almost doubled in price, and yet the service is poorer. His words say it all: the trains are “always packed” and “often delayed”.

Others have shared similar experiences. Azriel said that GWR’s prices were “outrageous”, and that trains were always “very full”, and echoed other comments that point to the frustration that many of us have about the south Wales corridor and the fact that the electrification, which has been delayed and complicated, will stop in Cardiff. It will not even go to Swansea, as was promised.

[Jo Stevens]

My hon. Friend is being very generous in giving way. A standard return rail ticket to London from my constituency, Cardiff Central, costs £242. For the same price, passengers could fly from our Welsh Labour Government-owned Cardiff airport to Barcelona and back three times, and they would still have change for a taxi home. Is it any wonder that my constituents are giving up on using GWR? Does my hon. Friend agree with them?

[Stephen Doughty]

I completely agree with them. My hon. Friend’s constituency neighbours mine; they are either side of Cardiff Central station. If someone goes out the front, they end up in my hon. Friend’s constituency, and if they go out the back, they end up in my constituency. I hear the same stories all the time. Many people have told me that they are turning to driving, instead of using trains. They have called train travel on GWR trains “unbearable” and “awful”. One said:

“Since the new rolling stock was introduced on long distance services, I have driven long-distance more as the new trains are (for me and my partner) unbearable.”

Oral Answers to Questions

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Thursday 5th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

There are two routes in the north that I feel particularly keen to look at seriously reopening. One is the line from Skipton to Colne. The other is the line that passes through Middlewich in my hon. Friend’s constituency that, in my view, should be a commuter railway into Manchester. Transport for the North has been working on the options, and I am committed to ensuring that we take that work forward.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

13. What recent assessment he has made of trends in passenger rail usage.

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

16. What recent assessment he has made of trends in passenger rail usage.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Joseph Johnson)]

With two decades of almost unbroken growth, we have seen rail passenger journeys more than double since the mid-1990s. For the first time since 2009-10, statistics from the Office of Rail and Road show a small decline in rail journeys over the past year, although passenger kilometres have continued to increase.

[Jo Stevens]

Rail passenger usage is falling. Is it any wonder that my constituents in Cardiff Central are giving up on using the trains, when a standard return rail ticket to London for a morning meeting costs £235? With that money, they could fly from our Welsh Labour Government-owned Cardiff airport to Barcelona and back three times and still have change for a taxi home.

[Joseph Johnson]

The Government are conscious of the cost of fares to the travelling public. For that reason, we have ensured that fares have risen at a lower rate than they did under the last Labour Government. The causes of the decline in season ticket numbers are complex. Although the statistics show a fall in journeys made using season tickets, there has been an increase in journeys made using other ticket types over the past year. Factors such as strikes, station closures and weather have had an impact on season ticket use.

Confidence in the Secretary of State for Transport

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Tuesday 19th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Clive Efford]

I agree with my hon. Friend that the Secretary of State has to take responsibility. That is why I fully support the motion.

The Secretary of State really exposed himself by putting his particularly dogmatic approach to the franchise system ahead of the interests of passengers in a letter that he wrote on 24 April 2013 to the present Foreign Secretary when he was Mayor of London. His letter actually predicted the fact that the Tories were toast and that Labour was going to win the mayoral election. He stated that he did not want to see the London overground services in “the clutches” of a Labour mayor. That had nothing to do with what was in the interests of my constituents or anyone else who used the trains. It was pure political dogma. He was saying, “I don’t like the Labour party, so no matter how much it could improve the service for people who use the trains, we’re not going to let Labour take over the rail service.” So much for an open bidding process to run the best possible service!

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a pattern of behaviour here? Before the 2015 election, when the right hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) was Lord Chancellor, Labour wrote to say that there should be no more privatisation contracts in the probation service. The right hon. Gentleman ignored that, because he did not want to accept that Labour was right about the disaster that the probation service now is.

[Clive Efford]

That is absolutely right. This is the first time that the right hon. Gentleman has got caught when everything has come home to roost while he is still in position. Usually he moves on and someone else has to sort out his problems—for example, by allowing prisoners to have books.

My constituents deserve a better service. Their services are being cut and they will have a reduced choice under the new franchise. They do not want Govia to be allowed to continue running the franchise, yet it has still been allowed to bid. They want longer trains, and I have lobbied many times in here to get extra carriages for the franchise but they have disappeared into the system. We still have eight-car trains turning up at peak times and there is not enough space for people to have a comfortable journey into town.

South-east London has been appallingly served by this Secretary of State. There has been a constant litany of letting us down, and the buck has to stop somewhere. He has never stood up to the franchise operators—the train operators—to ensure that we get value for money and the services we are entitled to in south-east London. For him, everything is fine as long as it is privatised. He has never made any attempt to take on the private enterprise that is profiteering at the expense of the people who rely on the trains. In south-east London we do not have direct access to the London underground, so anyone who wants to commute into London has to use the bus or the rail service. The rail service, as it has been run by this Government, has been appalling and it is getting worse. The buck stops with the Secretary of State, so I fully support the motion.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Thursday 18th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I do agree. This is a question, as it is across the country, of ensuring that we have longer trains for the future. That is central to our strategy and is what the private sector is delivering for our railways, and it needs to happen on CrossCountry trains as well.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

On funding, Cardiff Central station—the busiest in Wales—is in urgent need of redevelopment to accommodate expected passenger growth of 22 million in the next five years. This week, our Labour council and the Welsh Labour Government announced their funding contributions and the private sector funding, but the project can go ahead only if there is UK Government funding, too. When will the funding be confirmed?

[Chris Grayling]

The important thing about Cardiff Central station is that there is huge development taking place around the station. I have met the developers and local politicians, and I want to see there what I want in other parts of the rail network, which is a real integration of station development with commercial development. That should be an absolutely integral part of what is happening all around the station, not just in the station project in its own right, and that is what I want to happen.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Thursday 15th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hayes]

Of course we always give consideration to those kind of matters and it is important that we give credit where credit is due. When I have worked out, following the hon. Gentleman’s rather long question, whether credit is due, I will decide whether or not to give it.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

9. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of existing legislation for the taxi and private hire vehicle industries.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Andrew Jones)]

Local councils have the powers to provide effective licensing arrangements in their area, but legislation is in the House to strengthen the current framework. We will consult on new statutory guidance for local licensing authorities once the parliamentary process is complete.

[Jo Stevens]

I thank the Minister for his reply. Internet and smartphone use has revolutionised private hire vehicle services. Does he believe that current legislation, which is now several decades old, is adequately regulating this technology?

[Andrew Jones]

The legislation that governs this sector goes back many, many more decades, to the age of the horse and carriage. That is why the Government asked the Law Commission to take a comprehensive review of taxi and private hire regulation in England and Wales. Obviously, it is a devolved matter in Scotland and Northern Ireland. We will be responding to the Law Commission’s report in due course.