Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of the Humber Freeport on existing (a) road, (b) rail and (b) ports infrastructure.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
I would like to congratulate the Humber Freeport on its successful bid. My Department recognises that appropriate links will be vital to ensure the success of the UK’s newly established Freeports. My Department will consider the implications of the Freeport business cases for our transport networks and future infrastructure investment decisions.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of consumer protections for transactions for ferry travel during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Department for Transport holds regular discussions with ferry companies and has made clear that the requirements of passenger rights regulations remain in force during the Covid pandemic. Companies are required to comply with their legal obligations and honour passenger’s rights.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to extend Compulsory Basic Training licenses during the period of covid-19 lockdown restrictions announced in January 2021.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The two-year validity period of a compulsory basic training (CBT) certificate is set out in legislation. It is in place to ensure learner moped and motorcycle riders can ride safely on their own, with L-plates, while they practise for a full moped or motorcycle test. The Government has no plans, on road safety grounds, to waive that two-year validity period.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to release further vouchers under the Fix Your Bicycle voucher scheme.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department plans to release further vouchers as soon as possible and no later than Easter if lockdown restrictions allow.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to ensure the suitability of the location of covid-19 testing sites for goods drivers requiring a negative test before embarkation for continental Europe to ensure significant distances are not added to journeys, with particular respect to the ports of Kingston upon Hull and Killingholme.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Covid-19 testing sites have been located at thirty-five Information and Advice sites (Motorway Service Areas and Truck stops) across the country linked to key haulier stopping spots on their journey to ports.
Currently the closest Covid testing Information and Advice sites to the ports of Hull and Killingholme are Doncaster, Wetherby, Hartshead Moor and Woodhall (Northbound). In addition, interim testing services have been setup at the port of Hull and Humberside Airport to provide additional facilities for hauliers bound for the Humber ports.
Their location has been determined by analysing such criteria as proximity to port, proportion of haulage traffic using the route, and capacity of the parking available. Covid-19 security has also informed the locations and site infrastructure.
The Department for Transport (DfT) continues to urge hauliers not to leave testing to the last opportunity and to get tested well before arriving at their port of departure.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the application process for ECMT permits for 2022 will open; and when those permits will be awarded.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement sets out reciprocal market access rights for UK and EU road haulage operators in the UK that apply from 1 January 2021, with the vast majority of journeys not requiring ECMT permits.
We will review the demand and usage of annual ECMT permits for 2021 throughout the year and will, in due course, use this to decide how ECMT permits will be issued in 2022.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether a haulier who has accepted their allocation of ECMT permits for 2021 will be prevented from entering the application process for the allocation of permits for 2022.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement sets out reciprocal market access rights for UK and EU road haulage operators in the UK that apply from 1 January 2021, with the vast majority of journeys not requiring ECMT permits.
We will review the demand and usage of annual ECMT permits for 2021 throughout the year and will, in due course, use this to decide how ECMT permits will be issued in 2022.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has for issuing European Conference of Ministers of Transport driver permits, or an equivalent to hauliers from EU member countries.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement sets out reciprocal market access rights for UK and EU road haulage operators in the UK that apply from 1 January 2021, with the vast majority of journeys not requiring ECMT permits.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to limit the number of hauliers from EU Member States with access to the UK.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
There are no plans to limit the number of hauliers from EU member states from accessing the UK. The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement sets out reciprocal market access rights for UK and EU road haulage operators in the UK that apply from 1 January 2021.
The Agreement allows frictionless transport to continue between the UK and the EU and ensures the continued flow of goods, food and medicine into the country.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department has had with local government leaders in coastal communities on the potential benefits of investing in maritime decarbonisation.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
My Department has published its assessment of the potential merits of investing in maritime decarbonisation, as set out below.
In 2015, the Department published the Maritime Growth Study, which considered all aspects of the maritime sector and identified where action could be taken to generate growth. Following the publication of Maritime 2050 in 2019, which builds on the findings of the Maritime Growth Study, the Department published the Clean Maritime Plan, which identified the potential for clean economic growth in the UK as a result of the transition to zero emission shipping.
Alongside the Plan, the Department published an assessment of the value of potential economic opportunities from low and zero emission shipping. This review provided a framework for assessing the scale of the opportunity generated by emission reduction technologies, including a mapping of the relevant supply chain, an assessment of the global uptake of these technologies, the economic footprint of the UK firms in the supply chain and the UK’s share of global export of these technologies.