Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, If he will list the (a) private, (b) municipal and (c) trust ports that are within the Freeport zones in England announced by the Government in March 2021.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
There are 18 privately owned ports, 2 municipal ports, and 2 trust ports within Freeport zones. There is one port which is owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) but privately leased and operated. These numbers depend on how a port is classified – for the purposes of this answer, the publication Focus on Ports (2006 edition) has been used as guidance supplemented with updated information where status is known to have changed or new ports have opened. There are also 4 airports. A list by Freeport zone is below:
East Midlands
East Midlands Airport
Freeport East
Port of Felixstowe - Private
Port of Ipswich – Private
Port of Mistley – Private
Harwich Haven (includes Harwich International Port within the Harbour Authority area which is privately operated) – Trust
Humber Freeport
Port of Hull - Private
Port of Immingham - Private
Port of Goole - Private
Port of Grimsby - Private
Liverpool City Region Freeport
Port of Liverpool – Private
Port of Birkenhead - Private
Port Garston - Private
Port Weston - Private
Manchester Ship Canal (including Port Salford) - Private
Liverpool John Lennon Airport
Plymouth and South Devon Freeport
ABP Millbay Docks - Private
Sutton Harbour - Private
Port of Plymouth – Municipal
Cattewater Harbour – Trust
Solent Freeport
Port of Southampton (includes DP World Southampton terminal) – Private
Solent Gateway/Port of Marchwood – MoD owned but privately leased
Portsmouth International Port – Municipal
Southampton Airport
Teesside Freeport
Teesport and Hartlepool (includes Redcar Bulk Terminal, Port of Middlesbrough, and Port of Hartlepool) – Private
Teesside International Airport
Thames Freeport
London Gateway - Private
Port of Tilbury (including Tilbury2) - Private
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many statutory harbour authorities in the UK are (a) private, (b) municipal or (c) trust ports.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Port ownership models are not subject to frequent change. The most recent comprehensively collected data on this topic, from 2005, estimates there to be 181 private ports, 170 municipal ports and 75 trust ports in the UK. It should be noted for that this data is not collected on a regular basis and it is possible this number has slightly altered since the data was last collected.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he will respond to the consultation on the Harbours (Seafarers’ Remuneration) Bill which closed on 7 June 2022.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
We will be publishing a government response to the formal public consultation which set out full details of the Bill’s proposals as soon as we have finalised full analysis of all the responses, which is currently underway.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to require all bus operators in England to report any vehicle fires to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operators are already required to report an incident (such as a vehicle fire or collision) which involves a PSV to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department maintains a central record of all bus fires in England.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The DVSA record instances of vehicle fires against individual operators. The DVSA monitor reports of vehicle fires and will report any trends or unexplained causes of vehicle fires to its Vehicle Safety Branch (VSB). The VSB may initiate a safety recall should this be deemed necessary for safety reasons.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of bus fires in England.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Bus operators are subject to a range of requirements aimed at ensuring the safe operation of vehicles and the avoidance of incidents, including fires. These requirements, imposed under the operator licencing scheme, include regular vehicle maintenance checks, annual vehicle testing, and incident reporting requirements. In addition, enforcement checks may be carried out by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2022 to Question 131066 on Bus Services and Taxis: Assistance Animals and Wheelchairs, when he plans to publish a consultation on the introduction of mandatory disability awareness for taxi and minicab drivers.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Department for Transport remains committed to introducing mandatory disability awareness training for taxi and PHV drivers in England through new National Minimum Standards for licensing authorities when Parliamentary time allows.
The Department will be consulting later in the year on updated best practice guidance for local licensing authorities, including a stronger recommendation that every driver is required to complete disability awareness training.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all road users are informed of the recent changes to the hierarchy of road users within the Highway Code.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department has launched a £500,000 THINK! campaign to raise awareness of the recent changes to The Highway Code, including a focus on the new hierarchy of road users. Communications have included media engagement with supporting stakeholder comment, social media advertising, radio advertising and an extranet to share both static and video assets with stakeholders to amplify our messages. The campaign is running in England, Wales and Scotland.
Further communications are planned for later in the year, to align with seasonal increases in active travel, to help embed the changes and encourage understanding and uptake of the new guidance.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the current waiting times for practical driving tests in (a) City of Durham and (b) the North East.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
As of 13 December 2021, the waiting time for a car practical driving test in (a) Durham is 4 weeks, and the average waiting time in (b) the North East is 14.3 weeks.
The aim is to increase testing capacity and reduce waiting times as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining a COVID-secure service for customers and examiners. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has put in place a number of measures to increase practical driving tests. These include offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays). The DVSA has also started a recruitment campaign to increase the number of examiners.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Prime Minister's oral contribution on 3 November 2021 in response to the Hon. Member for Jarrow and published in the Official Report, how the additional £96 billion investment in rail services in the North East of England will be spent.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department will very soon publish its Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) which will look at how best to deliver major rail investments in the North and Midlands including HS2 Phase 2b, Northern Powerhouse Rail and other major Network Rail schemes, so that the benefits of these investments are delivered to passengers and communities more quickly.