Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to bring forward legislative proposals to give the Government power to ring-fence landing slots at Heathrow Airport to protect connections to regional airports as was proposed in the Airports (Amendment) Bill [HL] 2010-12.
Answered by John Hayes
Under European Union regulations airport slot allocation in the UK is managed by a designated co-ordinator which is independent of the Government, the Civil Aviation Authority and other interested parties.
The Government will consider how all UK airports, including those in the South East, can best utilise their existing runways to allow the growth of both domestic and international connectivity as part of the new Aviation Strategy. This will be an ambitious programme of work, and we will be consulting widely throughout 2017, leading to publication of an Aviation Strategy White Paper at the end of 2018.
The draft Airports National Policy Statement, currently out for consultation, sets out that expansion at Heathrow would be an opportunity to not only strengthen the frequency of existing domestic routes, but also to develop new domestic connections, including to regions currently unserved. Government would expect Heathrow to add at least six more domestic routes by 2030 bringing the total to 14.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Driver and Vehicle Agency posts there were in (a) Fermanagh and South Tyrone and (b) West Tyrone constituencies in (i) 2007-08 and (ii) the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) is part of the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department for Infrastructure and the staff there are part of the Northern Ireland Civil Service. The Department for Transport and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency do not hold information on the number of staff employed by the DVA in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential effect on infrastructure projects currently in receipt of TEN-T funding of the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government supports the TEN-T programme and its successor (from 2014) the Connecting Europe facility (CEF), as a means of providing funding for transport infrastructure projects on the TEN-T network.
It is unclear what would happen with funding to EU programmes, particularly if the UK were to leave the EU in the middle of the EU budget cycle (2014-2020).
At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government's position, as set out by the Prime Minister to the House on 22 February, is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.