Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the potential closure of train station ticket offices in Middlesbrough on the (a) safety and (b) accessibility of passenger rail travel in the North East.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of all passengers; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. We would also expect operators to consider other equality related needs and make this clear in the notice sent to other operators and passenger groups.
Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. No currently staffed station will be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and train operators will ensure staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future.
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.