Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average length of time is from joining for an employee to qualify as a (a) senior watch manager, (b) watch manager, (c) watch officer and (d) watch assistant.
Answered by John Hayes
The length of time taken to train Coastguard Officers is entirely dependent on their level of experience and competence when they join Her Majesty’s Coastguard and the level of experience of competence they gain prior to any internal promotion. Therefore an average for these would be misleading.
On entry to HM Coastguard as a Maritime Operations Officer it will take between six and 12 months to become trained, depending on previous maritime experience and competence.
HM Coastguard do not recruit direct entry Senior Maritime Operations Officers, they are internally recruited from the cadre of fully trained Maritime Operations Officers who will then undertake a further six months of training for this post.
As roles that can be directly recruited from outside HM Coastguard the training for both Maritime Operations Controllers and Maritime Operations Commanders is entirely dependent on their prevailing maritime experience and is in effect bespoke for the individual concerned.
It should be noted that the roles senior watch manager, watch manager, watch officer and watch assistant no longer exist within HM Coastguard.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what change there has been in the number of incidents reported along the south coast from Plymouth to Selsey Bill in the last five years.
Answered by John Hayes
The number of incidents reported along the south coast from Plymouth to Selsey Bill over the last five years is as follows:
Year | Total |
2011 | 7,776 |
2012 | 7,427 |
2013 | 6,470 |
2014 | 7,624 |
2015 | 3,927 |
Between September 2014 and December 2015, as part of Her Majesty’s Coastguard’s incremental transition of Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres into to its national network, its Incident Management System (IMS) was upgraded, centralised and improved. These new national network arrangements have removed the potential for incident duplication across the 18 individual IMSs and have led to more consistent classification of incidents.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the coastguard turned down any request from any other service for assistance during inland floods in the last five years.
Answered by John Hayes
Her Majesty’s Coastguard does not specifically record occurrences when other Category 1 Responders or any other service requests assistance. Information may be held within the text narrative of an incident record but this would require a check of tens of thousands of records over the last two to five years.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times the coastguard has turned down requests from other Category 1 Responders for assistance in the last five years; and for each such request (a) what type of request it was, (b) what reason was recorded for it being turned down and (c) which coastguard station turned it down.
Answered by John Hayes
Her Majesty’s Coastguard does not specifically record occurrences when other Category 1 Responders or any other service requests assistance. Information may be held within the text narrative of an incident record but this would require a check of tens of thousands of records over the last two to five years.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to use the (a) £175 million cycling, safety and integration fund and (b) £75 million air quality investment fund referred to in the Government's Road Investment Strategy for the period 2015-16 to 2019-20.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
a) £175 million cycling, safety and integration fund
Highways England is developing a programme of initiatives to improve the safety of the network and to also improve facilities for cyclists, pedestrians and equestrians, identifying further opportunities for improved integration with wider transport networks such as Park & Ride.
This fund supports their ambition to reduce the number of casualties on the strategic road network and encourage walking and cycling as an everyday mode of travel, as set out in the DfT Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
(b) £75 million air quality investment fund referred to in the Government's Road Investment Strategy for the period 2015-16 to 2019-20.
Highways England’s Delivery Plan commits them to start 10 air quality pilot studies in the first 2 years of this road investment period.
These studies are designed to identify new and innovative solutions that will be funded using the air quality designated fund, to improve air quality alongside the strategic road network and support delivery of the major improvement schemes identified in the Road Investment Strategy.
Highways England’s work in relation to air quality, and the use of the £75million air quality designated fund (2015 – 20), is in support of the Government’s National Air Quality Plan.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to include a commitment to constructing safe paths alongside busy roads in rural areas in the forthcoming National Road Safety Strategy to improve cycle safety.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Conservative Manifesto 2015 had a commitment to reduce the number of cyclists and other road users killed or injured on our roads every year. We have been working closely with road safety groups to consider what more can be done and expect to publish our Road Safety Statement shortly.
The Road Safety Statement will set out the high level plan and overarching approach to road safety that we expect to take over the rest of the Parliament, and will be followed by a series of more detailed proposals and consultations. The Department for Transport will publish a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy in 2016 which will set out our plans for investment in safer cycling and walking infrastructure.
Busy roads in rural areas will either be the responsibility of Highways England or local authorities.
Highways England have committed to provide a safer, integrated and more accessible strategic road network for cyclists and other vulnerable road users. To support this, the Government has outlined a commitment to invest £100m between 2015/16 and 2020/21 to improve provision for cyclists on the strategic road network.
On a local level, provision of cycling infrastructure is for local traffic authorities. The Department encourages them to ensure cycling is considered as part of the planning process.The Department for Transport’s Cycle Infrastructure Design guidance supports local authorities on providing cycle-safe infrastructure for cyclists.
It is also worth noting that from within the record £6 billion to be allocated to local highways authorities between 2015 and 2021 for road maintenance, from 2018/19 the plan is to change the formula used to allocate local highways maintenance capital funding so that it also takes into account footways and cycleways as well as the roads, bridges and street lighting, which it is currently based on. Once implemented, around 9% of the funding will be based on footway and cycleway lengths.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department plans to allocate to (a) increasing the number of journeys undertaken by bicycle and (b) reducing the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on roads over the next five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government remains committed to its manifesto targets to double cycling and make cycling safer.
The Government recently reaffirmed its commitment to cycling and walking, with SR2015 announcing funding support of over £300m. This includes delivering the Cycle City Ambition programme in full, and funding the Bikeability cycle training programme, which increases cycle proficiency amongst school children.
The Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, to be published in summer 2016, will explain the Government’s investment strategy for cycling and walking.