Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the trends in the level of skilled workers to complete rail electrification of the (a) North and (B) South Wales main lines.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail, as the infrastructure manager for Great Britain’s railways, is responsible for considering the skills and workforce requirements for infrastructure projects such as electrification schemes. It is assisted in this by the National Skills Academy for Rail, which supports the rail industry in acquiring, maintaining and developing the workforce it needs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has plans to use the 200th anniversary of the modern railway in 2025 to focus on the future skills required in the railway industry.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The 200 year anniversary is a nationally important moment to mark and celebrate. The DfT will work with the whole industry to make this a special event for workers and passengers alike. We are already working with the rail industry on future skills plans which will enable them to deliver a railway that is fit for the future. One of the commitments of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail is to create a new joined-up, cross sector training and skills offer which will support people at every career stage to develop skills and bring in experience from outside the rail sector.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) (i) age profile and (ii) adequacy of the supply of skilled workers and (b) potential merits of policies to maintain a skilled workforce in the rail industry.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
My Department is aware of analysis from the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) indicating that a significant proportion of the rail industry workforce is aged over 50. Some of this analysis was included as part of the Williams Rail Review evidence collation and published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-rail-sector-in-numbers.
We are considering this and other issues affecting the supply of skilled workers over the next decade, and will set out details in due course.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2020 to Question 118090 on Railways, what specific risks his Department has identified that could affect the rail industry and rail network in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Government put in place a broad range of rail statutory instruments to provide certainty and clarity to rail operators on the domestic rail regulatory framework in the event of a non-negotiated outcome with the EU. Given there is no rail-specific chapter in the UK-EU negotiations, impacts on the rail sector of a non-negotiated outcome will relate to cross-cutting risks such as, for example, access to skilled workers as a result of changes to labour mobility arrangements, changes to trading arrangements for rail-related goods and services, and supply chain disruption related to changes in customs and border arrangements from 1 January 2021.
Department officials have been engaging closely with rail industry stakeholders since the EU Referendum to ensure they are fully prepared for a non-negotiated outcome. Industry stakeholders have developed appropriate contingency arrangements and are now well prepared for the end of the Transition Period.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of High Speed Two on levels of economic activity in (a) the North of England, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and c) Haltemprice and Howden constituency.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
HS2 will offer faster, more frequent and more reliable travel between cities and areas of the UK and will increase capacity on our congested railways. The eastern leg of Phase Two of HS2 will connect Yorkshire to the West and East Midlands, and Transport for the North is exploring options to make use of the HS2 line for faster services between Leeds, York and Newcastle, improving links between regions that are home to around 11 million people.
HS2 will increase the number of skilled workers that businesses based in Yorkshire can access. It will allow businesses to collaborate with supply chains and research and development partners, draw on a deeper pool of skills, access new sources of finance and support networks and secure new customers in regions across Britain.
Yorkshire’s thriving digital and technology sector stands to benefit from this improved access to investors and support networks, ranging from firms specialising in health technology, Big Data and FinTech in Leeds to businesses in Sheffield and Rotherham with expertise in data management and analytics and in telecommunications.
The WYCA and Leeds City Region LEP are developing a HS2 Connectivity Strategy that sets out how to support additional jobs that are forecast to be created across the city region, with 25,000 of these located in Leeds City Centre. Passengers from Hull will have access to conventional services to Leeds, which will allow onward connections using HS2 services to Birmingham and London.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he plans to take to ensure the maintenance of a skilled workforce in the rail industry after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Andrew Jones
On 6 December, Government and industry published the Rail Sector Deal to strengthen collaboration and improve the productivity of the sector. The Government will take steps to provide even greater certainty to the rail industry about the profile of future spending, to give enhanced confidence to the industry to invest in Research & Development, people and skills. The industry is committed to: refreshing the Rail Sector Skills Delivery Plan; running a pilot in the Midlands to encourage SMEs both to increase the uptake of apprenticeships in the rail industry and to test how shared apprenticeships can work; a schools engagement programme to better target the promotion and attraction that rail companies undertake; and conduct a feasibility study for a Digital Railway Academy. East Midlands Trains, part of the Stagecoach Group, has also become the first train operator to trial the UK’s first level 3 Train Driver Apprenticeship Programme as part of the National Driver Academy. This is a project which will recruit a new generation of drivers with the skills and management to provide passengers with better, more reliable journeys.
In 2016 DfT set ambitions through the Transport Infrastructure Skills Strategy to increase apprenticeships in road and rail bodies to help address skills shortages in the transport sector and ensure that the transport sector has the capacity and capability to deliver planned investment.
DfT works in collaboration with employers across the sector through an industry body, The Strategic Transport Apprenticeship Taskforce (STAT) to deliver these ambitions. Network Rail, HS2, the Rail Delivery Group, the National Skills Academy for Rail and TfL are members of STAT. So far, over 5000 apprenticeships have been created in road and rail bodies. Since 2017, The Department for Transport has used its procurement to drive apprenticeship numbers through contracts, including those within the rail industry.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the level of work orders necessary to ensure the retention of a skilled work force in the railway supply chain.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In formulating plans for the next Control Period, the Transport Secretary has looked to balance a wide range of factors, including supply chain capability. In line with the Industrial Strategy, the Transport Secretary expects our investment in the railway to facilitate the development of a more innovative, productive and globally competitive domestic supply chain, leaving a lasting legacy.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of a stable and adequate skills base among the workforce in railway occupations.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Ensuring a skillful and resilient workforce remains a priority for the Department, and for Network Rail. Network Rail is continuing to invest heavily in the training of its workforce, both in the short term with £44 million invested in capability last year, and in the long term with £60 million invested in the creation of seven state of the art vocational training centres.
To ensure a skill base in the future workforce as well as the present, Network Rail have opened a new apprenticeship centre at Westwood which will by September this year be fully dedicated to the delivery of high quality residential apprenticeships. This will allow Network Rail to meet its commitment to deliver over 4200 apprenticeship new starters within the company by 2022, and supporting the creation of over 2000 within its supply chain.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of peaks and troughs in National Rail's annual workload on its capacity to retain skilled staff.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Network Rail is responsible for assessing the effect of peaks and troughs in the company’s annual workload on its capacity to retain skilled staff, as an arm’s length body from government.