Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has sought advice from Baltic Exchange or any other shipping brokers in relation to the capacity of Seaborne Freight to run a cross-channel ferry service.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Department was supported by advice from a number of external advisers.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what payments from the public purse are due to Seaborne Freight under the contract issued by his Department for provision of ferry services between Ramsgate and Ostend (a) in advance of ferry services being provided and (b) in the event of the company being unable to fulfil the contract.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
No payments are due either in advance of ferry services being provided or in the event of the Company being unable to fulfil the contract.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will list the third party organisations that undertook due diligence on Seaborne Freight in advance of his Department’s awarding of a contract to that company for ferry services.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The third party organisations who provided external advice were Deloitte UK, Slaughter & May and Mott MacDonald.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether it is his working assumption that Seaborne Freight will use ships for its proposed cross-channel ferry operation operating under the UK flag.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
This is a commercial decision for any vessel operator, including Seaborne Freight.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has received any written assurances from Thanet District Council or Kent County Council that they have completed any due diligence checks on Seaborne Freight.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The contract to provide additional ferry capacity is between the Government and Seaborne Freight and therefore Government has carried out necessary due diligence.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2018 to Question 201109, whether he plans to make representations to his Israeli counterpart on allegations that Israeli security forces impersonated humanitarian workers while conducting a military operation inside the Gaza Strip in November 2018.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Whilst we do not have plans to raise these allegations, we routinely make clear to the Israeli authorities our concerns about their conduct of the occupation.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for the middle east peace process of recent trends in the level of incitement and intolerance in Israel towards Palestinians and Muslims; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We are gravely concerned by the ongoing and increasing violence in the West Bank. We condemn the recent terrorist attacks in the Old City of Jerusalem and in the West Bank. The continued incitement against Israel by Hamas and other actors is deeply concerning. The calls for the murder of Palestinian politicians are unacceptable. President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to non-violence and a negotiated two-state solution. We continue to urge the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to avoid engaging in, or encouraging, any type of action or language that makes it more difficult to achieve a culture of peaceful coexistence and a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the level of access to superfast fibre broadband in (a) Birmingham Northfield, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands; and what steps he is taking to improve such access.
Answered by Margot James
According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/england), 96.8% of premises in Birmingham Northfield constituency currently have access to Superfast Broadband. Similarly, 96.8% of premises in the city of Birmingham has access to Superfast broadband.
The West Midlands area is slightly higher with 97% of premises having this access. This is up from 60% in 2010. All three areas currently sit above the UK average.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of using alternative and emerging technologies such as G.fast to support the roll-out of superfast and ultrafast broadband.
Answered by Margot James
The UK has good digital connectivity to meet the needs of today’s consumers. This includes G.fast technology, which is used by Openreach to deliver ultrafast speeds of more than 100 Mbps, using their existing part-copper infrastructure.
However, the Government is clear that demand for faster, more reliable and resilient broadband will rise and that the UK needs to increase the number of full fibre connections to deliver a nationwide gigabit capable broadband network by 2033. Our Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), published in July 2018, set out a strategy for delivering that ambition. This includes direct investment into full fibre through the £190 million Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) Challenge Fund and the £67 million Gigabit Voucher Scheme. At Budget, the Chancellor announced a further £200 million from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) to pilot innovative approaches to deploying full fibre in rural areas.
The Government is also working to improve mobile broadband. We are committed to extending geographic coverage to 95% of the UK by 2022, and to becoming a world leader in 5G, with the majority of the population covered by a 5G signal by 2027. As part of this, Government is investing £200 million in a 5G Testbeds and Trials programme.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of changes to levels of funding on the adequacy of provision of special needs education.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We have listened to the concerns of local authorities and others about high needs cost pressures. That is why we will provide additional high needs funding allocations for all local authorities, totalling £250 million over 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020. This brings the total allocated for high needs this year to £6.1 billion and £6.3 billion in 2019 to 2020. We recognise that the high needs budget faces significant pressures and this additional investment will help local councils to manage those pressures.
Of course, extra funding cannot be our only response and we have also set out plans to support local authorities in their role of providing strategic leadership and oversight of the provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We will continue engaging with local authorities, health providers, families, schools and colleges to build our understanding of what is driving the cost pressures on high needs budgets and to work with the sector to help manage them.