Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of road conditions.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department takes the condition of our roads very seriously, and is providing £5.5 billion of highways maintenance capital funding for English local highways authorities over this Parliament. It is also working with the British Standards Institute and the Transport Research Laboratory to develop a new standard for assessing road condition. This will help authorities identify, assess, and deal with road defects, including potholes.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to reduce overall travel through the upcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Transport Decarbonisation Plan will set out a bold and ambitious pathway for decarbonisation. The Plan will take a holistic and cross-modal approach to decarbonising the entire transport system, and as part of this will include measures to accelerate modal shift to public and active transport.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) economic and (b) employment benefits of the policies which will be set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The economic and employment benefits of the policies set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan are under active consideration. Their assessment is being carried out in line with existing analytical frameworks and approaches, including for instance using the Government’s Energy Innovation Needs Assessment (EINAs) methodology to estimate the GVA and jobs opportunities for road transport1, and considers analysis and evidence from external sources, including for example the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Maritime UK. Further details will be provided in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan which we expect to publish this spring.
1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-innovation-needs-assessments
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the upcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan will set out quantified emissions reductions pathways for decarbonising the transport sector.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP) will provide quantified estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emission projections based on implementation of the policies in the Plan, including estimates of uncertainty. The Plan will also include projections broken down by transport sub-sectors.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
What steps his Department is taking to improve the condition of England’s roads.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is providing over £2.7 billion for the maintenance of England’s local highway network, outside of London, over 2020/21 and 2021/22, and £4.1 billion for capital renewals on the strategic road network in England over the next 5 years.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps High Speed Two Ltd is taking with (a) further and (b) higher education institutions to employ apprentices.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
HS2 Ltd and its supply chain continue to work closely with higher education institutions to support degree level apprenticeships as well as a range of other employer and outreach work, and are working closely with both further education (FE) institutions (including Derby, Moulton, Solihull, and Walsall colleges, and the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure) and higher education (HE) institutions (such as Anglia Ruskin, Aston, Birmingham Metropolitan, Coventry, Loughborough, Sheffield Hallam, and Wolverhampton Universities) to meet the aims of the HS2 Skills, Employment and Education Strategy
As part of their contractual requirements, HS2 Ltd’s supply chain is contractually required to deliver skills, employment and education outputs. As well as creating apprenticeships, these include supporting unemployed people into work; creating opportunities for work placements; and delivering school engagement actives including school age work experience. In much of this work there is a focus on supporting individuals from under-represented groups.
Recent activities have included:
Attending career and apprenticeship fairs across the country at various institutions this year (pre-lockdown);
HS2 Ltd assisting in the development of the T level qualification in Construction: Design, Surveying and Planning;
Supporting Aston University’s Diversity in the Commercial World event in February 2020;
HS2 td and Tier 1 contractors sitting on the Employer and Partnership Boards of various educational institutions;
Balfour Beatty Vinci (Main Works Contractor) working with Walsall College to deliver their first T level in Construction: Design, Surveying and Planning;
HS2 Ltd with Tier 1 contractors working with Coventry University’s Director for Quantity Surveying, Commercial Management and Construction Management degrees to develop a package of support for undergraduates;
HS2 Ltd has worked closely with the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (previously National College for High Speed Rail). Since 2017, they have sent 69% of their apprentices to the college to study level 4 and 5 programmes in Project Management and Leadership & Management. A number of their supply chain companies, including BBV, LM, Systra, CSjv, Align, WSP, ACI, Arup, Jacobs, Bechtel and Atkins have apprentices at the College.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with (a) representatives from HS2 Ltd, (b) Cabinet colleagues and (c) other relevant organisations on accelerating the construction of High Speed Two services to Manchester.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is preparing an Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands which will set out our intentions for the HS2 Phase 2b route to Manchester and Leeds. That work is overseen by a Ministerial taskforce chaired by the Secretary of State, which includes colleagues from the Prime Minister’s Office, HM Treasury, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
The Oakervee review concluded, following experience on Phase One, that having smaller Bills/phases may allow for faster construction of the project.
HS2 Ltd has been asked to prepare draft legislation for the route into Manchester for deposit in Parliament by early 2022, and to be ready to act on the conclusions of the Integrated Rail Plan for the whole route.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with stakeholders in the North West on the Integrated Rail Plan.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I have held a series of regional roundtables with political and business leaders, including those from the North West, inviting them to set out their priorities for rail in their areas. I will continue to seek views from regional representatives as work on the Integrated Rail Plan continues over the coming months.
The Integrated Rail Plan will also be informed by a ‘Rail Needs Assessment’ from the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), which is now considering evidence from stakeholders across the Midlands and the North.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the economic benefits of High Speed Two to Manchester.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The full business case for High Speed 2 Phase One ‘Moving Britain Ahead’ was published in April 2020. This sets out the latest assessment of the economic impacts of HS2.
Previous analysis suggested that around 18% of the overall transport user benefits will be distributed to passengers from the North West with the full HS2 network in place (HS2 Ltd’s ‘Economic case advice for the DfT’ publication in 2017).
Passengers from Manchester and across the North West will benefit from improved connectivity and reduced journeys times to and within the North. Better connectivity promotes wider economic growth and potential gains from regeneration and local growth strategies supporting the levelling up of the UK economy.
As part of the Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands we will look at how best to integrate HS2 Phase 2b and wider transport plans in the north and Midlands as well as how best to reduce costs.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking with local government to tackle road congestion to aid the regeneration of town centres in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government works closely with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Transport for Greater Manchester to support local transport measures which are specifically designed to address congestion, promote alternative modes of transport to the car and regenerate town centres.
The Government is committed to ensuring that local highway infrastructure is well maintained to facilitate smoother and safer journeys, with better connections. The Secretary of State has recently announced a £1.7 billion Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund to improve roads, repair bridges and fill in millions of potholes. Greater Manchester’s share of this is £64.2 million.
In addition, Greater Manchester was awarded £312.5 million from the Transforming Cities Fund which is being used to fund schemes aimed at better connecting communities, in a sustainable way, and promoting cycling and walking as an alternative to using cars. In addition, over £660 million of Local Growth funding has been awarded to Greater Manchester in the three rounds of Growth deals to invest in transport schemes across the region and fund town centre improvements.
Most recently, Government has provided significant financial support to essential bus and Metrolink services throughout the Covid19 pandemic to increase public transport services for key workers and to help restart the economy. On 27 May, it was announced that Greater Manchester had also been given an indicative allocation of £3.2 million from the Emergency Active Travel Fund, to ensure that active travel is a viable alternative to using the car, as well as providing a safe space to do so in the town and district centres.