Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
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 Humber Freeport on seafarer jobs in (a) Hull and (b) the Humber region.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Freeports will bring together ports, local authorities, businesses and other key local stakeholders to achieve a common goal of shared prosperity and opportunity for their regions. This is likely to increase jobs in the Humber region, including seafarer jobs due to greater shipping activity.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Budget 2021, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of freeports on the delivery of contracts with ferry operators recognised under the Freight Capacity Framework Agreement.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
In the Budget speech on 3 March, the Chancellor announced that 8 Freeports would be created in 8 regions of England, as selected by the Secretary of State for the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government. Subject to agreeing the governance arrangements and successfully completing the business cases, these Freeports will begin operations from late 2021. The introduction of Freeports in late 2021 will not have an impact on GSFC routes as the current GSFC contracts run until 30 June 2021.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
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 Humber Freeport on the employment conditions of seafarers employed by P&O Ferries on ferry routes between Hull and the Netherlands.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The UK’s eight newly established Freeports will be national hubs for international trade, innovation and commerce, regenerating communities across the UK. Government will ensure that the UK’s high standards with respect to workers’ rights will not be compromised – like any other business in the UK.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress he has made on ratifying ILO Convention 185 on Seafarers’ Identity Documents.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The UK currently recognises and accepts all seafarer identity documents that are compliant with ILO Convention 108, and will also accept documents compliant with ILO Convention 185 where the issuing State has previously ratified ILO 108. The UK was a major contributor to the drafting and subsequent amendments of ILO 185.
The pandemic has delayed progress but officials continue to work with Home Office on the significant technical, security and operational requirements that would need to be in place to allow ratification.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will estimate the (a) maximum and (b) minimum value of his Department’s contract with P&O Ferries under the Freight Capacity Framework Agreement for additional roll-on roll-off freight capacity through the Port of Hull for a six-month period from 1 January 2021.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Following a robust procurement process, contracts were awarded to Brittany Ferries, DFDS, P&O Ferries and Stena Line on 13 October 2020. There is one route involving the Port of Hull, through which P&O ferries will provide freight capacity between Hull and Europort Rotterdam. This contract has a minimum value of £1, and a maximum value of £6,052,086.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the contracts that his Department has signed with four ferry companies under the Freight Capacity Framework Agreement for additional roll-on roll-off freight capacity for a six-month period from 1 January 2021.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Following a robust procurement process, contracts were awarded to Brittany Ferries, DFDS, P&O Ferries and Stena Line on 13 October 2020. The contracts have already been published and are available via the Contracts Finder tool on gov.uk using the following references:
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the routes involving the Port of Hull in his Department’s Freight Capacity Framework Agreement contract with P&O Ferries for additional roll-on roll-off freight capacity for a six-month period from 1 January 2021.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Following a robust procurement process, contracts were awarded to Brittany Ferries, DFDS, P&O Ferries and Stena Line on 13 October 2020. There is one route involving the Port of Hull, through which P&O ferries will provide freight capacity between Hull and Europort Rotterdam.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of employment conditions for seafarers working on the Cypriot registered Seaways Strashnov transporting steel monopile (a) foundations and (b) transition pieces for installation at the site of the Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm on the UK Continental Shelf.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The vessel in question is registered in Cyprus and is currently operating out of the Netherlands. Cyprus has ratified the Maritime Labour Convention and the employment conditions on board must be in compliance with the Convention.
If there is reason to believe that the vessel is not in compliance, it should be brought either to the attention of the Dutch maritime authorities, as the port state for the vessel, or the Cypriot maritime authorities as the flag state.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2020 to Question 51908 on Ferries: Freight, if he will publish the names of the external experts that provided (a) legal, (b) technical and (c) financial advice on the design of the Public Service Obligation Agreements; and what the cost to the public purse was of that advice.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government is providing up to £35.2m in funding to maintain capacity for critical goods for 9 weeks across 16 critical freight routes. During the height of the crisis, we believed it was important to keep this vital flow of critical goods such as medicines and food into and across the UK.
The providers of expert advice are as follows:
Legal advice - Slaughter & May
Technical advice - Costain
Financial advice - PwC
The amounts spent on the external experts to date are as follows:
Slaughter & May - £394,048
Costain - £188,676
PwC - £178,058
These figures exclude VAT.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2020 to Question 55949 on P&O Ferries: Coronavirus, whether he has held discussions with representatives from P&O Ferries on the implication for seafarers in Hull of that company's proposals for (a) making redundant full-time Ratings on the Pride of Hull and (b) retaining agency crew from the Philippines to work on that vessel.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
I have met with both P&O Ferries and the maritime unions to discuss P&O’s redundancy proposal. As P&O remains in the consultation phase its proposals have not been finalised.