Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the post of Director of his Department's Acceleration Unit was advertised; and what the remuneration is for that post.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Director of the Acceleration Unit has been appointed on a fixed term basis in line with Civil Service Recruitment Principles. The remuneration for the post is in line with Senior Civil Service Pay Scales.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the role of member of his Department's Acceleration Unit was advertised; what the required skills are for that post; and what the remuneration for that post is.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the unit is established current appointments have been made on a temporary basis. Role profiles setting out the skills and experience needed within the unit were developed. Potential candidates were assessed against these criteria, this included an internal expression of interest, identified named individuals and applications from wider transport organisations who would join the department on secondment. Where fair and open competition has not been used, all appointments have been in line with the agreed Exceptions to the Civil Service Recruitment Principles. Remuneration for posts is in line with DfT Pay Scales.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to help ensure the accountability of his Department's Acceleration Unit.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Acceleration Unit will be directly accountable to the Secretary of State and is expected to engage with key stakeholders and colleagues across the department, government, and industry on a range of projects and programmes at varying stages of their lifecycle to deliver the best possible outcome from accelerating their delivery. The Acceleration Unit Director, Darren Shirley, will assess the effectiveness of its activities and report weekly to the Secretary of State.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether representatives of the business travel sector will be included in his Department's aviation restart and recovery unit.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The business travel sector is represented on the Restart and Recovery Unit’s Expert Steering Group by the British Business and General Aviation Association (BBGA). In addition, I most recently met with the BBGA on a bilateral basis on 11 June.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many rail delays were caused by (a) track failure, (b) signalling failure, (c) other infrastructure failure, (d) staff shortages, (e) train failures and (f) other train operating company failures in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The number of delay minutes affecting passenger operators since 2015 is as shown in the attached document. Delay minutes are the total number of minutes caused by a failure; this includes both the primary cause of delay and any knock on delays as a result of this failure. This data is not available broken down by the categories requested.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the role of (a) Navblue, (b) Lufthansa Systems, (c) Jeppessen and (d) other coding houses in airspace modernisation.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Coding houses are contracted by airlines to provide coding for their Flight Management Systems. The Department does not provide oversight of this commercial relationship or the work of coding houses. As part of the Aviation Strategy the Department has sought views on how to hold coding houses to account for their work if it results in aircraft deviating from approved flightpaths.
The Department has not conducted an assessment of the role of coding houses in airspace modernisation. A key component of airspace modernisation is the introduction of performance-based navigation (PBN) standards which will enable aircraft to more accurately follow approved flightpaths.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what oversight his Department has of the work of (a) Navblue, (b) Lufthansa Systems, (c) Jeppessen and (d) other coding houses in (i) setting and (ii) maintaining flight routes.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Coding houses are contracted by airlines to provide coding for their Flight Management Systems. The Department does not provide oversight of this commercial relationship or the work of coding houses. As part of the Aviation Strategy the Department has sought views on how to hold coding houses to account for their work if it results in aircraft deviating from approved flightpaths.
The Department has not conducted an assessment of the role of coding houses in airspace modernisation. A key component of airspace modernisation is the introduction of performance-based navigation (PBN) standards which will enable aircraft to more accurately follow approved flightpaths.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what oversight his Department has of the work of the Civil Aviation Authority in (a) setting and (b) maintaining flight routes.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is responsible for deciding whether to approve changes to the UK’s airspace design, including changes to specific flightpaths.
In carrying out the activities associated with its airspace role, the CAA has to follow the Department’s Air Navigation Directions and the Air Navigation Guidance. Both of these documents are kept under review and amended as considered necessary.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding was allocated to Network Rail for Control Period 6.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
£47.9bn of funding was allocated to Network Rail for Control Period 6 in the Government’s Statement of Funds Available for England and Wales, of which £34.7bn is supported by Government Grant. £4.85bn of funding was allocated to Network Rail for Control Period 6 in the Statement of Funds Available for Scotland, of which £2.2bn is supported by Grant.