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Written Question
Aviation: Carbon Emissions
Tuesday 5th July 2022

Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects to publish his (a) response to and (b) strategy resulting from his consultation on Jet zero: our strategy for net zero aviation.

Answered by Robert Courts

The Jet Zero Consultation closed on September 2021 and we received over 1400 responses. This was followed by a short, further technical consultation, which closed on April and received over 100 responses. We are carefully considering responses to both consultations, alongside the very latest technological developments and wider government policy, in the development of the final Jet Zero Strategy, which we are aiming to publish later this year. A summary of responses and the Government response to those consultations will be published alongside the Jet Zero Strategy.

We also published the Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) mandate consultation in July 2021, which set out our intention to mandate SAF supply in the UK from 2025. In March 2022, we published a summary of responses to the consultation and will be publishing the Government response shortly, which alongside the Jet Zero Strategy, will set out the Government’s position on the introduction of a SAF mandate.

Written Question
Airports: Security
Friday 22nd April 2022

Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that sufficient resources are in place to enable the processing of references and security checks for (a) airport security officers and (b) airside roles.

Answered by Robert Courts

We are engaging with the aviation industry and are looking for ways to help the industry to recover quickly as we emerge from the COVID pandemic and travel restarts. Security continues to be paramount and we will not allow people to work airside when they have not been subject to the appropriate enquiries. The travelling public must have confidence that appropriate security measures are in place at airports. They would expect nothing less of government.

There are two categories of checks. The first are industry security checks. These include checks on an individual’s employment and education history over five years. These checks are the responsibility of the industry – they can take time and we continue to engage with them to understand any challenges. The second category are checks by Government. These are being processed in a timely manner. There are no delays, and the aviation industry is fully aware of the time these important checks take.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 15 Mar 2022
International Travel

"May I express my gratitude to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for removing all covid-19 international travel restrictions for those coming into the United Kingdom? Will he join me in welcoming the reopening of the south terminal at Gatwick airport on 27 March and the thousands of …..."
Henry Smith - View Speech

View all Henry Smith (Con - Crawley) contributions to the debate on: International Travel
Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 24 Jan 2022
Covid-19: International Travel

"My sincere thanks to the Government for these measures to reduce significantly the testing requirements for international travel during covid-19. As the Secretary of State has correctly mentioned, other jurisdictions around the world will require British travellers entering those countries and territories to do testing. Will he continue to monitor …..."
Henry Smith - View Speech

View all Henry Smith (Con - Crawley) contributions to the debate on: Covid-19: International Travel
Speech in General Committees - Mon 29 Nov 2021
Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme

"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Ms Nokes, and always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East. He is always welcome at Gatwick, as long as he does not travel a little further south and knock on doors in Crawley to …..."
Henry Smith - View Speech

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Written Question
Travel: Coronavirus
Thursday 4th November 2021

Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help make international travel (a) easier and (b) less expensive during the covid-19 pandemic.

Answered by Robert Courts

Thanks to our successful vaccine rollout, the government has made international travel easier and cheaper for fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and over 135 countries and territories covered by our inbound vaccination policy.

Eligible fully vaccinated passengers and most under 18s arriving in the UK now only require a lateral flow test on arrival. From 1 November, we removed the last 7 countries from the red list.

The government will continue to keep travel under review and ensure that health measures for international travel remain proportionate and necessary.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 20 Sep 2021
International Travel

"I very much welcome this statement, with a pragmatic approach to covid-19 testing for international travel and recognition of vaccines, and also, on the day that the Prime Minister is in New York, the news that the US Administration—this has taken a lot of work from the US-UK taskforce to …..."
Henry Smith - View Speech

View all Henry Smith (Con - Crawley) contributions to the debate on: International Travel
Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 13 Sep 2021
HGV Driver Shortages

"I was recently in the US, where a shortage of 60,000 truck drivers was across the media. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the answer is improving standards and conditions for British workers, not undercutting them?..."
Henry Smith - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 08 Jul 2021
International Travel

"I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement. These are absolutely the right measures to be taking. However, can I encourage him as soon as possible to go further and look to expand the number of green list countries to which international travel is possible, particularly working in the US-UK …..."
Henry Smith - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 29 Jun 2021
International Travel

"If we do not have a meaningful summer of transatlantic operations, it will cost the UK economy an estimated £2.5 billion and mean up to 52,000 jobs are lost, so may I encourage my right hon. Friend to make sure that we press for that UK-US taskforce on opening up …..."
Henry Smith - View Speech

View all Henry Smith (Con - Crawley) contributions to the debate on: International Travel