Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his Answer of 16 January 2019 to Question 207177 on Volkswagen: Exhaust Emissions, what investigations his Department conducted to determine that no wrongdoing has taken place within the UK.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The relevant engines were designed, developed, manufactured and presented for type approval (either by the UK Vehicle Certification Agency or other EU type approval authorities) outside the UK. The Government has not aware of any evidence that representatives of VW UK were aware of the wrongdoing.
Evidence on this matter is likely to flow, if at all, from the investigation now being undertaken in Germany. In these circumstances it would not be appropriate for the UK to carry out a separate parallel investigation, and there would be significant difficulties in obtaining evidence. However, the Government has reserved its position on this matter and continues to monitor the German investigation with interest.
Given that the German investigation remains under way, the Secretary of State has had no further recent discussions with his German counterpart.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2019 to Question 207177 on Volkswagen: Exhaust Emissions, what recent discussions he has had with his German counterpart on criminal proceedings against executives of Volkswagen.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The relevant engines were designed, developed, manufactured and presented for type approval (either by the UK Vehicle Certification Agency or other EU type approval authorities) outside the UK. The Government has not aware of any evidence that representatives of VW UK were aware of the wrongdoing.
Evidence on this matter is likely to flow, if at all, from the investigation now being undertaken in Germany. In these circumstances it would not be appropriate for the UK to carry out a separate parallel investigation, and there would be significant difficulties in obtaining evidence. However, the Government has reserved its position on this matter and continues to monitor the German investigation with interest.
Given that the German investigation remains under way, the Secretary of State has had no further recent discussions with his German counterpart.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that legal action is pursued against Volkswagen executives regarding that company's emissions scandal.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Volkswagen's behaviour in installing defeat devices in its vehicles has been entirely unacceptable. Taking criminal action against Volkswagen is complex given that in legal terms the wrongdoing appears to have taken place outside the UK. It is for the German Government in the first instance to prosecute.
For this reason, it would be inappropriate to carry out a separate parallel UK criminal investigation. The Department reserves the option to do so, however, based on the evidence from any German prosecution.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2018 to Question 159567 on Severn Tunnel: Closures, whether his Department holds information on the costs of the engineering work during the temporary closure of the Severn Tunnel in 2018.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Network Rail hold the detail of these costs. This is part of the over £5bn investment in the Great Western route to deliver faster, more reliable services and new trains with thousands more seats.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2018 to Question 155763, on Severn Tunnel: Closures, what estimate his Department has made of the costs of the engineering work during the temporary closure of the Severn Tunnel in 2018.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The costs of engineering work during the temporary closure of the Severn Tunnel are factored into the overall programme costs. We are investing over £5bn in the Great Western route to deliver faster, more reliable services and new trains with thousands more seats.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the economic effect of the temporary closure of the Severn Tunnel.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Network Rail have closed the Severn Tunnel in preparation for electrification from London to Cardiff from 16th June – 7th July.
In preparation for the £5 billion modernisation of the Great Western Mainline, the Department funded the Swindon to Kemble redoubling project to provide a robust diversionary route for passengers and freight to South Wales.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether electrical equipment installed during the previous closure of the Severn Tunnel has rusted.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The overhead conductor system is showing early signs of deterioration because of the wet and corrosive environment in the Severn Tunnel.
Network Rail have identified this early on and are addressing this matter prior to energisation of the electrification system.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) meetings and (b) correspondence the Government has had with the German Government on steps against Volkswagen after its manipulation of data emissions.
Answered by Jesse Norman
It is for the German Government as the responsible authority in the first place to take legal action. Ministers have regularly raised this issue with their German counterparts. The Government will continue to press the new German administration to seek a successful outcome.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 24 April 2017 to Question 71366, on Diesel Vehicles: Exhaust Emissions, whether the Government has provided any assistance to customers or their legal representatives in their bid for civil action against Volkswagen.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department continues to engage with the firms that are pursuing legal action against Volkswagen and has responded to their requests for information and assistance when appropriate. We will continue to monitor the progress of their action.
The Department also responds to many requests for further information about the issue from members of the public and has met with a group of VW customers with affected vehicles.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government has taken to (a) quantify the amount and (b) assess the effect of extra air pollution produced by cars affected by emission data manipulation in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Jesse Norman
We are unable to estimate accurately the air quality impacts resulting from Volkwagen’s actions as it is not possible to quantify the additional emissions of the affected vehicles under all conditions of operation.
However the Department has made a comparison of the old software to the new ‘fix’ software under test track conditions. Results from tests of four Skoda vehicles (Roomster, Rapid, Superb and Octavia) indicate 25-40% lower NOx emissions with the new ‘fix’ software.