Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans does his Department has to restore hourly direct Avanti West Coast services between Chester and London that were in place prior to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Currently Avanti West Coast (AWC) operate two direct trains per day in each direction between London Euston and Holyhead via Chester. The Department is working with Train Operating Companies to develop attractive timetables that are reliable, deliver excellent performance for passengers, and offer good value for money for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to include local stakeholders outside of the rail industry in the consultations on covid-19 recovery timetables.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Throughout the pandemic, the Department has been working with the rail industry to keep the country moving while protecting the public purse. Recovery timetables were designed to be flexible, so they could be amended to reflect fluctuating demand. Given the fast-changing nature of the situation, train operators were unable to follow regular railways procedures, including stakeholder consultations. As new passenger demand patterns are established, we expect train operators to consider local stakeholders when developing their plans.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made for the implications of her policies of companies domiciled or listed in the UK threatening environmental defenders in Colombia with legal action, following lawful or legitimate protests on their land.
Answered by Wendy Morton
As set out in the FCDO Annual Human Rights Report, we expect British businesses to respect local and international law wherever they operate.
The UK was the first country to create a National Action Plan to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This plan sets out what is expected of the conduct of UK businesses, including compliance with relevant laws and respect for human rights; treating the risk of causing human rights abuses as a legal compliance issue; adopting appropriate due diligence policies; and consulting those who could potentially be affected.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps she is taking to help protect environmental defenders in Colombia who face potential threats and attacks for protecting their lands from corporate activity.
Answered by Wendy Morton
UK ministers and senior officials regularly raise human rights issues, as well as specific cases of concern, with the Colombian Government. The UK's Minister for the Environment, Lord Goldsmith, raised our concerns around violence and threats toward environmental defenders on a visit to Colombia from 5-8 October.
Colombia is a UK 'Human Rights Priority Country' and we consistently raise our concerns regarding violence against human rights defenders and social leaders at the UN Security Council, as we did at meetings in July and on 14 October. We will continue to raise our concerns with the relevant state actors in Colombia.
Through our Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund (CSSF) programme, which has provided £63 million in support of peace agreement implementation, security, and stability in Colombia since 2015, we will continue to prioritise funding interventions to protect human rights defenders, including environmental activists, and social leaders.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps she is taking to help protect environmental defenders in Colombia who are being threatened by international companies as a result of their lawful and legitimate protest against illicit activities on their land.
Answered by Wendy Morton
UK ministers and senior officials regularly raise human rights issues, as well as specific cases of concern, with the Colombian Government. The UK's Minister for the Environment, Lord Goldsmith, raised our concerns around violence and threats toward environmental defenders on a visit to Colombia from 5-8 October.
Colombia is a UK 'Human Rights Priority Country' and we consistently raise our concerns regarding violence against human rights defenders and social leaders at the UN Security Council, as we did at meetings in July and on 14 October. We will continue to raise our concerns with the relevant state actors in Colombia.
Through our Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund (CSSF) programme, which has provided £63 million in support of peace agreement implementation, security, and stability in Colombia since 2015, we will continue to prioritise funding interventions to protect human rights defenders, including environmental activists, and social leaders.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions (a) he, (b) his officials and (c) advisors have had with representatives of the BBC about internal staff appointments at the BBC.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government, and the government has no role in internal or executive recruitment at the BBC.
Meetings with external organisations and individuals undertaken in a ministerial capacity are published on GOV.UK on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the BBC about internal staff appointments at the BBC.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government, and the government has no role in internal or executive recruitment at the BBC.
Meetings with external organisations and individuals undertaken in a ministerial capacity are published on GOV.UK on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will list the members of the interview panel for the first selection process for the Chair of Ofcom.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The first process to appoint the permanent Chair of Ofcom was run in line with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code for Public Appointments, and regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. In line with the requirements of the Governance Code, the members of the interview panel were published in March 2021 on the Cabinet Office’s Public Appointments Website. The panel consisted of Susannah Storey (Director General, DCMS), Paul Potts (Senior Independent Panel Member), Melanie Richards and Lord Livingston of Parkhead.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many applicants in the first process for the appointment of Chair of Ofcom had their applications carried forward automatically to the second process.
Answered by John Whittingdale
A second process to appoint a permanent Chair of Ofcom has not yet been launched but announcements will be made in due course. The process will be a fair and open competition, and run in line with the Governance Code for Public appointments and regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the payment of the Cultural Recovery Fund for phase three is made in a timely manner.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Our Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) is worth £2 billion in total and is the largest investment in culture, art & heritage in UK history.
Our delivery bodies are working hard to ensure payments from the first two rounds reach organisations quickly, and so far over 83% of all awarded CRF funding has been paid. Payments through the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) are typically made in multiple tranches. Final payment is typically made at the very end of the grant period, once activities and costs have been reported.
As part of the design process for the third round of the CRF, the Department has conducted various lessons learnt exercises to help us determine where to make design and delivery changes. Details on the third round of funding were published on 25 June, including a specific ‘emergency resource support’ strand that will provide funding quickly to those who are at imminent risk of failure. As with all large and complex funding packages, we will ensure that key lessons learned from the whole process are captured, and used to help improve grant delivery in the future.