Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2024 to Question 12083 on Fishing Vessels: Surveillance, what the cost was of aviation undertaken by (a) Maritime and Coastguard Agency and (b) DWF lawyers (i) in the preparation of these cases and (ii) for other associated reasons in 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Flights operate to support all areas of MCA business including Search and Rescue, counter pollution, and law enforcement/assurance, and the purpose of these flights is not exclusive to the PPE regulations. It is therefore not possible to provide a breakdown specifically related to this issue. DWF lawyers do not undertake flights for these purposes.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much the Maritime and Coastguard Agency spent on (a) flights, (b) legal action and (c) staff in relation to the monitoring of fishing vessels for compliance with regulations on the wearing of personal flotation devices in 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
In 2023, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) incurred £31,104 in legal costs associated with issuing notices relating to breaches of the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Personal Protective Equipment) Regulation 1999. This is in addition to estimated staff costs in the range of £5,000 to £10,000. Flights support all areas of MCA operations, including search and rescue, counter-pollution, and law enforcement/assurance. As such, it is not possible to provide a specific cost breakdown for flight operations.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will set out his Department's strategy on sustainable aviation fuel.
Answered by Anthony Browne
The UK government’s SAF programme has three key pillars. We are driving demand for SAF through a new mandate which will be introduced in 2025, requiring at least 10% of jet fuel to be from sustainable sources by 2030. We are kick starting a domestic SAF industry and have allocated over £135m for UK SAF production facilities through the Advanced Fuels Fund. We are working with industry and investors to build a long term UK SAF supply and have committed to design and implement a revenue certainty mechanism to support a UK SAF industry.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what legal costs were incurred by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency for prosecutions relating to the non-wearing of personal flotation devices in the last 12 months.
Answered by Guy Opperman
In the past 12 months the Maritime and Coastguard Agency have not prosecuted any individuals or organisations for the non-wearing of personal flotation devices and have not incurred any related legal costs.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many notices were issued to fishing vessel owners following the flights conducted by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in 2023; and what the (a) nature and (b) outcome was of each notice.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) issued 110 notices in 2023 related to breach of the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Personal Protective Equipment) regulation 1999. Out of the 110 notices; 57 resulted in the MCA issuing non-criminal cautions to persons admitting breaching regulations, 15 concluded with no further action taken and 38 are still being investigated.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish data held by his Department on the ownership and flag status of ships transporting (a) Forties Pipeline oil and (b) UK North Sea oil generally for refining overseas.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department for Transport does not hold data on ships transporting Forties Pipeline oil and UK North Sea oil generally for refining overseas.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) supervision there is and (b) checks there are of operators and vessels transporting North Sea oil for refining.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is responsible for ensuring that UK Flagged ships are compliant with all the relevant international conventions and any other additional UK requirements. The ships would have appropriate certification with periodical surveys/audits being carried out by the MCA or one of the UK’s recognised organisations. Companies operating these ships are subject to audits on an annual basis by the MCA or one of the UK’s recognised organisations.
Foreign flagged ships would be subject to port state control inspections when they call at a UK port. This is to ensure that they are compliant with all applicable international conventions. The flag state of the vessel is responsible for the oversight of the operating companies.
This is applicable to all ships operating in the North Sea irrespective of whether or not they carry North Sea oil.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people usually resident in the UK travelled to the UK via (a) sea, (b) tunnel and (c) air in each year between 2013 and 2022.
Answered by Anthony Browne
The Department for Transport does not hold data on the number of people usually resident in the UK that travelled to the UK via sea, tunnel, or air in each year between 2013 and 2022.
Data on the number of visits abroad by UK residents from 2013 to 2022 is available, however. This data is published in table TSGB0113 of the Transport Statistics Great Britain publication and reproduced as Table 1 below. The data in this table is collected as part of the Office for National Statistics’ International Passenger Survey, but the Department for Transport does not hold equivalent data for UK residents travelling to the UK. It is assumed that most UK residents travelling abroad will return to the UK at the end of their visit, but not always by the same mode of transport.
Table 1: Visits abroad by UK residents (in thousands) by mode of transport
Year | Air | Sea | Channel Tunnel | Total |
2013 | 54,862 | 7,980 | 6,117 | 68,959 |
2014 | 57,893 | 8,173 | 6,138 | 72,204 |
2015 | 63,438 | 7,902 | 6,278 | 77,619 |
2016 | 68,342 | 7,639 | 5,776 | 81,757 |
2017 | 73,746 | 7,489 | 6,007 | 87,242 |
2018 | 76,356 | 7,496 | 6,719 | 90,571 |
2019 | 79,534 | 7,150 | 6,402 | 93,086 |
2020 [Note 1] | [x] | [x] | [x] | [x] |
2021 [Note 2] [Note 3] | 17,061 | 1,174 | 907 | 19,142 |
2022 [Note 2] | 62,243 | 4,371 | 4,337 | 70,950 |
Note 1: No data were collected for Q2 to Q4 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Due to data only being available for the first 3 months of 2020, this year has been omitted.
Note 2: Data collection from Dover port was restarted in Q3 2021 but no data were collected from the Eurotunnel for 2021 and the first two quarters of 2022. Eurotunnel estimates for Q4 2021, Q1 2022 and Q2 2022 are based on modelling passenger numbers with the data collected from the London Eurostar terminal.
Note 3: Movements across the Irish land border are excluded from 2021.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/tsgb01-modal-comparisons
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of devolving powers to the Scottish Parliament to vary penalties for drink driving in line with lower drink driving limits in Scotland.
Answered by Guy Opperman
There are no plans to do this at present.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on the distribution of funding previously allocated to HS2.
Answered by Huw Merriman
Departmental officials meet regularly with Scottish counterparts to discuss transport. Network North includes funding for schemes which will support Scotland, including funding to deliver targeted improvements on the A75 between Gretna and Stranraer and to complete dualling of the A1 from Morpeth to Ellingham.