Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the recent report submitted to the International Maritime Organisation by the International Transport Workers Federation on cases of seafarer abandonment in the shipping industry.
Answered by Mike Kane
The report was submitted for consideration at the 112th Legal Committee of the International Maritime Organization. As with all papers submitted to the committee, we are currently reviewing in advance of the Committee in March.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on the level of support provided to (a) Gibraltar and (b) other Red Ensign Group shipping registries for discharging Port State Control responsibilities, in the context of the Maritime Labour Convention.
Answered by Mike Kane
There has been no discussion between the Secretary of State and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on level of support provided to Gibraltar and other Red Ensign Group ship registers for the discharging of Port State Control responsibilities in the context of the Maritime Labour Convention.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department has taken to consult maritime trade unions ahead of the fifth meeting of the Special Tripartite Committee of the Maritime Labour Convention at the International Labour Organization in Geneva on 7-11 April.
Answered by Mike Kane
The Department regularly engages with the maritime trade unions, including through meetings of the UK Tripartite Working Group on the Maritime Labour Convention.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which ferry operators have access to operate commercial services from UK ports under the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code.
Answered by Mike Kane
There are ferry operators such as DFDS, Stena Line, Brittany Ferries, Irish Ferries, P&O Ferries, Condor Ferries and others operating commercial services from UK port facilities. The International Ship and Port Facility Security Code sets minimum standards for port and ship security which must be met by operators but does not itself grant access to operate commercial services. Decisions on commercial services are made by ports themselves.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Government delegation to the fifth meeting of the Special Tripartite Committee of the Maritime Labour Convention at the International Labour Organization in Geneva on 7-11 April will be announced.
Answered by Mike Kane
The UK Government delegation to the Special Tripartite Committee of the Maritime Labour Convention will be confirmed to the International Labour Organization in the usual way. We expect that the UK delegation will be led by DfT’s Head of Seafarers with additional support and technical expertise provided by officials from DfT and the MCA.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will have discussions with the Office of Rail and Road on the potential merits of increasing the number of northern services from (a) Seaham and (b) Horden train stations.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Rail North Partnership, on behalf of the Department and Transport for the North is currently examining a business case for the increase in services along the Durham Coast line to these two stations, with effect from the December 2025 timetable. The analysis must balance the economic and social benefits of this enhancement with the performance of existing services and the financial impact on taxpayer subsidy.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many train cars were in use by Northern in January 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
On 1 January 2024, Northern had 904 carriages. The average number of carriage journeys made by Northern Trains in January was 6543 per day across all train configurations.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when Network Rail plans to announce the preferred bidder for Project Reach.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Subject to the Project Reach business case going through DfT approval, Network Rail plans to announce the parties involved in any contract signature.
Neos Networks has, however, separately made an announcement on their website stating they are in exclusive talks with Network Rail.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the value for money of Network Rail’s signalling framework contracts.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Network Rail is responsible for the frameworks governing train signalling systems. In April 2024, Network Rail announced a £4bn, 10-year signalling framework - the Train Control Systems Framework (TCSF). The framework runs from 2024 until 2034 of which £3bn will be spent on digital signalling (ETCS) and £1bn on conventional signalling. The framework is one of the remedies published by Network Rail in response to the market study conducted by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to provide value for money through cost, quality and innovation.
ORR holds Network Rail to account for the delivery of its operations, support, maintenance, and renewals programmes. As the Digital Signalling Portfolio is included in the ORR’s final determination of Network Rail’s renewals funding, ORR will carry out monitoring of this portfolio of works during Control Period 7 (CP7).
More details about the frameworks can be found on the Network Rail website.
Network Rail’s £4bn train control systems framework to revolutionise signalling across Britain.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the amount spent by her Department on rail enhancements in each year of control period (a) five, (b) six and (c) seven.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Rail enhancements in England and Wales have been delivered through the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline since Control Period six (CP6), prior to that they were delivered directly through Network Rail. The following has been spent on enhancements in each financial year in Control Periods five (CP5) and CP6. Figures for Control Period seven are not yet available as no years have yet concluded. All figures are presented in £millions nominal and exclude third party contributions.
CP5 year 1 – 2014/15: £2,597
CP5 year 2 – 2015/16: £2,950
CP5 year 3 – 2016/17: £3,123
CP5 year 4 – 2017/18: £2,951
CP5 year 5 – 2018/19: £2,680
CP6 year 1 – 2019/20: £1,620
CP6 year 2 – 2020/21: £1,459
CP6 year 3 – 2021/22: £1,626
CP6 year 4 – 2022/23: £1,832
CP6 year 5 – 2023/24: £2,112