Rachael Maskell
Main Page: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)Department Debates - View all Rachael Maskell's debates with the Department for Transport
(2 years, 7 months ago)
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Grant Shapps
I should say to the hon. Gentleman that the detail on that was set out by the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully), yesterday in this House. I will make sure that the hon. Gentleman gets a full note detailing the answers to his questions.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
I welcome the statement from the Secretary of State, but the reality is that P&O could adjust its measures and continue to operate—and, of course, operate with different staff, with 800 staff losing their jobs. What consideration has the Secretary of State given to a 10th option of an operator of last resort, such as operates in the rail industry, so that he could immediately take such routes back into public ownership?
Grant Shapps
The hon. Lady will be interested to hear that I have considered an operator of last resort model. What happens at sea is somewhat different from what happens on the railways by the very nature of the fact that there is an open sea but there are specific rail lines. In this case, of course, we have the beauty of competition. We have Stena, DFDS and some others in that market, and they are plugging the gaps so that, from a capacity point of view, we are okay at this time.