Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, if he will seek the advice of the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests on the conduct of the honourable Member for Bishop Auckland.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
No. I refer the hon. Member to the letter to him from the DLUHC Permanent Secretary on this issue. More broadly, on the issue of Teesworks, I would also refer him to the Written Ministerial Statement of 25 May 2023 (HCWS813).
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to paragraph 13 of the report by the Chief Executive of the South Tees Development Corporation, published on 16 December 2021, whether she has had recent discussions with the South Tees Development Corporation on the potential impact of the the excavations of quayside at South Bank Quay Phase One on levels of contamination in the River Tees in the period between 18 August 2021 and 16 December 2021.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra Ministers have had a number of meetings with those who live and work in the area, including representative of the South Tees Development Corporation. The independent Crustacean Mortality Expert Panel (CMEP) published its report in January 2023 and it is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/panel-of-independent-experts-publish-findings-into-crab-deaths. In their independent investigation, the CMEP assessed land-based sources of contaminants as potential factors in the unusual crustacean mortality event along the north-east coast of England in 2021 and 2022. The panel concluded that a novel pathogen was about as likely as not to have caused the crustacean mortality.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to paragraph 13 of the report by the Chief Executive of the South Tees Development Corporation, published on 16 December 2021, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the the excavations of quayside at South Bank Quay Phase One on levels of contamination in the River Tees in the period between 18 August 2021 and 16 December 2021.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The work referenced in the report by the Chief Executive of the South Tees Devel-opment Corporation, published on 16 December 2021, relates to the redevelopment of South Bank Quay. This work was set out and approved as part of a local authority planning permission, which would have specifically detailed the site remediation plans within a remediation strategy. The Environment Agency did not input into this planning process. Under the Planning Regime, it is the responsibility of the Local Planning Au-thority to ensure that issues such as land contamination and risks to controlled waters are addressed appropriately by the developer. This includes ensuring that remediation activities if required are undertaken by the developer and that there are no remaining unacceptable risks posed to the environment as part of the proposed development.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report by the Chief Executive of the South Tees Development Corporation, published on 16 December 2021, whether she has had recent discussions with the Crustacean Mortality Expert Panel on the land-based excavations set out in paragraph 13 of that report.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Crustacean Mortality Expert Panel (CMEP) considered land-based sources of toxins in their independent report and their conclusions reflect this consideration. The CMEP has been stood down, but the Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Gideon Henderson, is now consulting with relevant experts who served on the CMEP about the specifics detailed in the South Tees Development Corporation report, to check these specifics do not alter the conclusions of the report.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report by the Chief Executive of the South Tees Development Corporation, published on 16 December 2021, whether the (a) Marine Management Organisation and (b) Environment Agency have undertaken investigations into the land-based excavations set out in paragraph 13 of that report; and whether those organisations have provided advice on the (i) potential toxicity of the materials excavated, (ii) remediation and destination of those materials and (iii) steps to help tackle any concerns.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The work referenced in the report by the Chief Executive of the South Tees Development Corporation, published on 16 December 2021, relates to the redevelopment of South Bank Quay. This work was set out and approved as part of a local authority planning permission, which would have specifically detailed the site remediation plans within a remediation strategy. The Environment Agency did not input into this planning process. This is because, using a risk based approach, this planning application was screened out of the Environment Agency’s Planning Screening Tool. Under the Planning Regime, it is the responsibility of the Local Planning Authority to ensure that issues such as land contamination and risks to controlled waters are addressed appropriately by the developer. This includes ensuring that remediation activities if required are undertaken by the developer and that there are no remaining unacceptable risks posed to the environment as part of the proposed development.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will place in the Library a copy of the memorandum of understanding that his Department agreed with the Cyprus Shipping Deputy Ministry on 21 February 2023.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Memorandum of Understanding signed on 21 February is a non-binding maritime co-operation agreement between the Department for Transport and the Cyprus Shipping Deputy Ministry. I have placed a copy of the MoU in the Libraries of both houses.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve seafarer (a) pay and (b) employment conditions on vessels which provide regular shipping services from UK (i) ports and (ii) Freeports but fall out of scope of the measures in the Seafarers Wages Bill and are not covered by collective bargaining agreements with the maritime trade unions.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department with input from industry and maritime trade unions is developing the voluntary Seafarers’ Charter to improve working conditions for seafarers. The charter will set minimum standards for overtime pay, access to social protections and address the use of voyage contracts. Further information about the Charter and its provisions will be made available in due course.
We are also looking to implement the improvements to employment conditions for seafarers that were agreed with the support of the UK at the May 2022 meeting of the Special Tripartite Committee of the Maritime Labour Convention. The amendments to the Convention include those to ensure that food and drinking water of appropriate quality is provided free of charge and that seafarers are provided with details of insurance before or during the engagement process. The Department has also supported guidelines requiring the provision of internet access to seafarers on ships in port at free or low cost and has commissioned research on this to ensure the UK remains at forefront of the global seafaring community.
We are in ongoing discussions with international partners, industry and trade unions to drive forward seafarer working conditions.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with maritime trade unions on the employment conditions of (a) non-European and (b) European seafarers on MS Finnpulp.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Ministers have regular engagement with the maritime trade unions but have not discussed the employment conditions on MS Finnpulp.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the number of seafarer jobs that were supported by each shipping activity in Teesport in each year since 2015.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department publishes statistics on seafarers nationally however these are not available at port level.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of trends in the level of demand for shipping services from Teesport to Zeebrugge in the logistics sector.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The port and shipping sectors are both private, commercial sectors. Therefore, the assessment of future demand requirements of specific markets such as logistics, will be a commercial factor for relevant operators.
The Department for Transport does not publish statistics at port-to-port level due to commercial sensitivity, however, statistics for UK major port freight traffic to specific countries are available in table PORT0499, accessible here: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F1122247%2Fport0499.ods&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.