Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the value is of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) contract with the Met Office to provide the shipping forecast; what the terms and termination date of that contract are; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the decision by the BBC to terminate its weather contract with the Met Office on the latter's contract with the MCA.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The value of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s (MCA) contract with the Met Office for provision of The Shipping Forecast is: £188,000 (excl. VAT). This is one element of a wider marine weather service that the Met Office delivers on behalf of the MCA. The total contract value for these combined services is £725,000 (excl. VAT). The current contract term is for one year and will expire on 31 March 2016.
With respect to the BBC’s decision not to renew its weather contract with the Met Office, this is a separate provision to the arrangements in place for The Shipping Forecast. Consequently, there will be no impact and the BBC will continue to broadcast The Shipping Forecast using data supplied by the Met Office.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will list what policy evaluations have been carried out by external organisations for his Department and its agencies in each financial year since 2010-11; whether the output of those evaluations was published; which organisation carried out each such evaluation; and what the value of each contract to provide that evaluation was.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The attached table lists evaluation projects which have been carried out by external organisations for the Department and its agencies in the requested period, in order of commissioning year. This includes all the evaluations that we have been able to identify from our central records and is likely to represent the substantial majority of qualifying activity in this period. As requested, details are provided on whether the output of those evaluations has been published, organisations carrying them out and values of contracts. The table below shows all projects with any activity since 2010-11 including a number which were commissioned before the period and finished during it. Around £8.5million has been spent on projects which started from 2011 to date whereas around £10million was spent on projects which started before 2011 and finished in this period.
Some of this information is now covered in annual published updates for the Department’s Monitoring and Evaluation Programme. This programme was established in 2013 after publication of the Department’s Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy. Relevant links are provided below.
2014 Programme update: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dft-monitoring-and-evaluation-programme-2014
2013 Programme: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dft-monitoring-and-evaluation-programme-2013
Monitoring & Evaluation Strategy (2013): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monitoring-and-evaluation-strategy
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, to which publicly-funded bodies and organisations the Maritime and Coastguard Agency makes the shipping forecasts provided by the Met Office available.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
All marine weather forecasts produced by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) are made freely available in the public domain. These marine weather services, of which the Shipping Forecast is one, are delivered to the MCA for broadcast by Her Majesty’s Coastguard (HMCG), but are also made publically available via the Met Office website, the BBC, and other media outlets.
The Shipping Forecast is made specifically available to the BBC for broadcast on Radio 4, but is also freely available on request to any public-funded body or organisation, subject to it being used appropriately, in its original form, and with acknowledgement of the Met Office and the MCA as the source.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will discuss with Network Rail the need to support businesses currently renting properties from Network Rail in the Brixton railway arches.
Answered by Claire Perry
Network Rail is an arm’s-length public sector body and the provision of business support to existing tenants affected by Network Rail’s proposed refurbishment of Brixton Arches remains a commercial matter for direct resolution between the parties concerned.
Network Rail advises that the scale of the work, which is likely to take a year, means that businesses will be unable to remain in their current spaces. It understands that this will be a serious upheaval for its tenants. Network Rail is already providing help and advice on the next steps. It will work with each individual occupier, provide business support tailored to each of their individual requirements, and work with them should they wish to return upon completion of the improvements. Network Rail will discuss the options available to them, including the phasing of the works and compensation.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what amount his Department and its agencies spent on research and development in each year since 2010-11; and what proportion such spending was of total departmental spending.
Answered by Claire Perry
The amount the Department for Transport and its Agencies spent on Research & Development (R&D) in each year since 2010 and the proportion of such spending against the Departmental spending are provided in the table below:
Year | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 |
Net R&D Spending | 34,000,000 | 38,000,000 | 38,000,000 | 43,000,000 |
Total Department Spend | 10,411,727,000 | 12,744,204,000 | 12,549,868,000 | 12,513,124,000 |
Percentages | 0.33% | 0.30% | 0.30% | 0.34% |
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of suppliers to his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are signatories to the Prompt Payment Code.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department has been a signatory to the Prompt Payment Code since 18 August 2010. However, my Department does not maintain records of whether or not its suppliers are signatories to this code.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of suppliers to his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid subcontractors within 30 days in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Claire Perry
We will only investigate a supplier’s payment performance where we receive a complaint from a sub-contractor.
Department for Transport standard T&Cs say:
‘The Department reserves the right to ask for information about payment performance and will provide a facility for sub-contractors to report poor performance to the Department.’
The ‘How we buy’ guide soon to be published on GOV.UK says:
‘General Conditions of Contract include a condition requiring suppliers employing sub-contractors to pay them promptly too. Any sub-contractors who are not being paid within a 30 day period should raise their concern with the Department, by emailing dftprocurement@dft.gsi.gov.uk. Please include the name, and reference number of the contract, and the nature of the complaint. Should this not be resolved to the supplier’s satisfaction, this can be escalated to the Mystery Shopper service email MysteryShopper@crowncommercial.gov.uk or telephone 0345 010 3503
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what requirements his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies place on suppliers in respect of their payment terms to subcontractors as part of their standard terms and conditions.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department’s General Conditions of Contract require that a supplier employing sub-contractors to carry out work for the Department pays all sums due to the sub-contractor as soon as possible and in any event not exceeding 30 days from the receipt of a valid invoice.
The Department also uses framework agreements awarded by other Government departments containing their own contract conditions such as the Crown Commercial Service and are moving towards the introduction of standard contract conditions that apply across central Government and expect these to be fully compliant with Regulation 113 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of undisputed invoices his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid within five days in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Claire Perry
The information for the Department for Transport and its agency bodies, together with further details, is available on the Government website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prompt-payment-statistics
Network Rail became an arms-length body of the Department on 1 September 2014. Therefore, the first time that Network Rail published prompt payment information against the 5 day target was in February 2015. The last period for which information is available is for period 11 (a 4 week period ending 31 January 2015), during which period 11% of invoices were paid within 5 days. Following reclassification of the organisation to the public sector, Network Rail is working to improve on this figure and the effects should start to become evident when period 12 information is published.