Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether (a) his Department and (b) any of his Department's agencies entered into contracts with Strategic Communication Laboratories in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The central Department and its four executive agencies – Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Vehicle Certification Agency – have no record of entering into any contracts with Strategic Communication Laboratories or its subsidiary in each year since 2010.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether (a) his Department and (b) any of its agencies has entered into contracts with Cambridge Analytica since 2012.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The central Department and its four executive agencies – Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Vehicle Certification Agency – have no record of entering into any contracts with Cambridge Analytica, or its parent company, since 2012.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the value of the assets for which his Department is responsible.
Answered by John Hayes
The government is undertaking a wide range of analysis covering the entirety of the UK and considering carefully all the potential implications arising from the UK’s exit from the EU.
The Autumn Budget proves that the government is committed to continuing to invest in transport infrastructure and technology to deliver the best possible base for strong future growth.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people in his Department with responsibility for social media are employed on a (a) full and (b) part-time basis.
Answered by John Hayes
There are no people employed in the Department (including the Executive Agencies) on a full or part-time basis that are solely responsible for social media content or management.
There are a range of people across the organisation involved with managing social media channels alongside other responsibilities but as such, the proportion of time spent on managing social media differs across these roles and teams so it is not possible to provide exact numbers.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the expected response time is of a coastguard search and rescue helicopter to an incident in the Firth of Forth.
Answered by John Hayes
Her Majesty’s Coastguard search and rescue (SAR) helicopter base at Prestwick is geographically closest to the Firth of Forth. It would take approximately 28 minutes to reach an incident in the Firth of Forth once a SAR helicopter has taken off from its base.
This is dependent however on the weather, helicopter availability and location. The Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) will consider all these factors and task the most appropriate asset to respond to an incident. HM Coastguard also has the ability to surge up to five Coastguard SAR helicopters to a single incident in the Firth of Forth, should it be necessary to do so.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many fatalities occurred around the UK coastline in each of the last five years to which coastguard services were called.
Answered by John Hayes
The number of incidents that included a fatality, in the UK search and rescue region when Her Majesty’s Coastguard was called, in each of the last five years is shown below:
Year | Fatalities |
2012 | 416 |
2013 | 427 |
2014 | 424 |
2015 | 407 |
2016 | 381 |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to review the location and number of HM Coastguard (a) employees and (b) search and rescue helicopters serving the Firth of Forth and south-east Scotland.
Answered by John Hayes
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency continually monitors the services that Her Majesty’s Coastguard provides around the whole of the United Kingdom.
As a result, there are currently no plans to specifically review the number or the location of Coastguard employees across its whole UK operation.
Coastguards on the national network do not operate with fixed geographic boundaries and are able to coordinate any incident around the UK Coast, irrespective of their physical location. Workload is balanced across the whole network rather than on a centre by centre basis and incidents managed locally, supported by the whole network when required.
The current contract for the UK’s search and rescue (SAR) helicopter service will operate until 2023-2024. As part of the contract renewal process, an assurance review of the existing SAR helicopter service will be undertaken independently, which will feed in to the tender for the next contract.