Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's current lease agreement for the Tyne Marine Office expires.
Answered by John Hayes
The lease agreement for Tyne Marine Office expires on 13 March 2017.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what alternative provision the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has made for seafarers in the North East to obtain advice and support in renewing their (a) Eng-1 medical and (b) basic training verification as a result of the planned closure of Tyne Marine Office.
Answered by John Hayes
The primary resource for advice and guidance to seafarers, including the renewal of ENG1s, can be found on gov.uk, and support is offered by officials working in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Seafarer Training and Certification Branch. Contact details for them can be found on the website.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the performance of the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Answered by Claire Perry
Performance during the period of DB Regio’s operation of the Metro concession has declined from an average of 86.62% Charter Punctuality (which is measured at 3 or more minutes late) in 2010/11 to only 80.37% in 2014/15.
Responsibility for the letting and operation of the Tyne and Wear Metro concession is a devolved matter and the monitoring of the concession performance rests with Nexus (the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive).
Regular updates are provided to North East Combined Authority meetings, where performance has been scrutinised.
I can confirm that the government is investing £350m over 10 years to renew infrastructure on the Metro, which is already delivering longer term reliability and resilience.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff in his Department reported experiencing bullying or harassment at work in the most recent Civil Service People Survey.
Answered by Claire Perry
At the time of the 2014 Survey the Department for Transport comprised a central department and five executive agencies as follows:
· Highways Agency
· Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency
· Maritime & Coastguard Agency
· Vehicle Certification Agency
· Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
The survey collated answers from 11,414 respondents. Out of these, 1,523 declared a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability.
a) In the 2014 People Survey, 23% (350) of Department for Transport respondents declaring a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability reported that they had personally experienced bullying or harassment at work in the past 12 months.
b) 10% of Department for Transport respondents declaring that they did not have a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability reported that they had personally experienced bullying or harassment at work in the past 12 months.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff in his Department responded that they were treated fairly at work in the most recent Civil Service People Survey.
Answered by Claire Perry
At the time of the 2014 Survey the Department for Transport comprised a central department and five executive agencies as follows:
· Highways Agency
· Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency
· Maritime & Coastguard Agency
· Vehicle Certification Agency
· Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
a) In the 2014 People Survey, 65% of DfT respondents declaring a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability responded that they were treated fairly at work.
b) 79% of DfT respondents declaring that they did not have a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability responded that they were treated fairly at work.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost to (a) individual drivers and (b) the road haulage sector of complying with EU Directive 2003/59/EC.
Answered by Claire Perry
The previous Administration consulted about the implementation of EU Directive 2003/59/EC, which, by introducing a qualification and continued periodic training, aimed to improve the professionalism of lorry and bus drivers. The Directive was implemented by the previous Administration based on an initial qualification by theoretical and practical driving tests which assessed competence. Annual costs to the haulage industry, associated with drivers undertaking initial qualification, were estimated to be around £21 million.
To maintain the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence, drivers are required to undertake 35 hours periodic training every five years. Annual costs to the haulage industry were estimated to be around £109 million.
We expect those costs to be off-set by social, environmental and cost benefits for road safety, improved fuel consumption, reduced wear and tear on vehicles, and improved journey times as a consequence of adoption of the Directive. Fuel savings of around £385 million were estimated for the haulage industry.
In 2013, Ministers sought to identify and remove unnecessary burdens for those who drove lorries or buses as an incidental part of their employment. The measures introduced, which removed the requirement for these drivers to obtain an initial qualification or undertake periodic training to maintain the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence, were estimated to have an annual net benefit to UK businesses of around £23 million.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the progress made by local authorities in increasing the provision of audio visual next stop and final destination on-board announcements on local buses through the Better Bus Area fund.
Answered by John Hayes
The 2012 Better Bus Area fund awarded some £70 million to 24 successful local authorities after a competitive process. Better Bus Area proposals involved a broad range of interventions including, in some cases, the introduction of audio visual systems on selected bus services. Schemes were anticipated to take 2 years to finalise, with a completion date of 31 March 2014. Officials are currently in the process of gathering final reports from each area ahead of examining the progress that has been made.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff employed by his Department received each level of performance rating in their end of year performance assessment for 2013-14.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department for Transport was formed in 2002 and consists of a central department and five executive agencies as follows:
Highways Agency (HA)
Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA)
Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA)
Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA)
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)
This response covers both the Central Department and our five executive agencies. The department employs 17,200 people. Information for the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and Vehicle Certification Agency is not yet available. Information on the Centre and other Executive Agencies is shown below. Percentages have been rounded up or down to the nearest whole number.
DfTc
| Non-Disabled % | Disabled % | Disability Unknown/Prefer not to say % |
Box 1 | 25 | 16 | 26 |
Box 2 | 66 | 69 | 62 |
Box 3 | 8 | 16 | 12 |
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DVLA
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| Performance Score (points) | Non-Disabled (%) | Disabled (%) | Disability Unknown/Prefer not to say (%) | |||||
| Below 70 | 57 | 29 | 13 | |||||
| 70 to 79 | 61 | 22 | 17 | |||||
| 80 to 89 | 58 | 22 | 20 | |||||
| 90 to 99 | 61 | 20 | 19 | |||||
| 100 to 109 | 73 | 14 | 14 | |||||
| 110 to 120 | 74 | 13 | 13 | |||||
In 2013/14, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) did not apply the same performance management process as the rest of the Department. Performance in 2013/14 was based on points and not box markings. The minimum score required to be eligible to receive a performance related pay award was 70 points. Those scoring below 70 points received no award. The maximum score attainable was 120 points.
Of the staff issued a full appraisal in 2013/14, a performance score is currently available for 93% of people. The breakdown of these reports is shown above.
Highways
| Non-Disabled % | Disabled % | Disability Unknown/Prefer not to say |
Box 1 | 11 | 7 | N/A |
Box 2 | 65 | 67 | N/A |
Box 3 | 5 | 8 | N/A |
Box 4 | 0.3 | 1 | N/A |
Not Selected | 20 | 18 | N/A |
Please note that the HA has a 4 box marking system. Boxes 2 and 3 and the traditional box 2 but broken in two parts to illustrated high box 2 and low box 2. “Not selected” refers to staff who opted for different terms of employment and are not covered by this performance marking scheme.
MCA
| Non Disabled % | Disabled % | Disability Unknown/Prefer not to say % |
Box 1 | 21 | 18 | 15 |
Box 2 | 68 | 72 | 58 |
Box 3 | 11 | 10 | 27 |