Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when all licensed import and distribution terminals will be fully post-Buncefield compliant.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
In 2008 the Competent Authority (CA) published the containment policy, a framework for upgrading existing fuel sites so far as is reasonably practicable. Upgrades are being prioritised at higher risk sites and where measures are aimed at preventing release of fuel from tanks. In order to avoid disrupting operations and supplies, the upgrading work is being phased. All necessary upgrades are expected to be complete by 2028.
The 87 fuel terminals and 7 refineries have already completed many of the high risk and low cost improvements required. Improvement plans for upgrading storage tanks at the fuel terminals have also been agreed with the CA and progress against plans is monitored on an annual basis. A new risk assessment method for the very large tanks at the oil refineries was agreed with the CA in October this year and the refineries will submit their upgrading plans for approval by March 2015.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of marine dredging applications that will be dealt with by the Marine Management Organisation using the online marine licensing system in 2014-15.
Answered by George Eustice
Since the beginning of 2014-15 the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has dealt with five 15 year marine licences for aggregate dredging.
For non-aggregate dredging Defra's Impact Assessment on exemptions and navigational dredging predicted 872 applications ranging from simple, routine and complex applications for 2014-15 (Ref: IA No DEFRA 1118 – The Marine Licensing (Exempted Activities) (Amendment) Order 2013). The actual annual number of applications being received so far is currently running at between 10-20% of the forecast.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the average length of time taken by the Marine Management Organisation to approve a marine dredging application using the outline marine licensing system since 2009.
Answered by George Eustice
The online marine licensing system came into force on 6 April 2011 following the formation of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in 2010. From the start of the licensing system the estimated average time taken by the MMO to approve marine dredging applications are as follows:
Aggregate dredging
Average length of time to licence a 15 year aggregate application is estimated at 300 hours (200 hours during application and 100 hours of pre-application advice)
Non-aggregate dredging
Description of activity | Average MMO hours per case
|
Simple navigational dredging | 3.5 |
Routine navigational dredging | 9 |
Routine capital dredging | 7.4 |
Complex navigational dredging | 13.35 |
Complex capital dredging | 11.88 |
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many marine dredging applications have been dealt with by the Marine Management Organisation using the online marine licensing system since 2009.
Answered by George Eustice
The online marine licensing system came into force on 6 April 2011 following the formation of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in 2010. To date the MMO have dealt with the following numbers of marine aggregate and non-aggregate dredging applications:
Aggregate dredging
2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14
|
0 | 1 x 15 year dredging permission | 0 | 25 x short term marine licences; | 14 x 15 year marine licences; |
7 x 15 year marine licences | 1 x aggregate trial dredging | |||
0 | 1 | 0 | 32 | 15 |
Non-aggregate dredging
There was a transitional period from 6 April 2011 to 5 April 2014 for non-aggregate dredging. This activity mainly included navigational dredging which become licensable from 6 April 2014.
Disposal dredged material at sea
(figures below represent MMO licensing up to April 2014)
2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14
|
0 | 0 | 39 | 42 | 38 |