Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support the growth of Birmingham Airport.
Answered by John Hayes
The Government has always made clear its view that airports, including Birmingham Airport, make a vital contribution to the growth and recovery of regional and local economies. The Government welcomes the ambition of UK’s airports which are responding to local demands and investing in their infrastructure to enable services to more destinations, and better facilities and choice for passengers.
Birmingham Airport announced at the end of last year it was investing £100 million on improvements to its facilities and infrastructure to improve the passenger experience.
A dedicated HS2 airport station will also improve surface access to the airport.
The government has also agreed that from this summer Birmingham Airport can become co-ordinated for the purposes of slot allocation, to maintain operational stability for the airport and the airlines that operate there.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of Midlands Connect.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Since attending the launch of Midlands Connect’s Picking up the Pace report in July 2016, the Secretary of State has welcomed Midlands Connect on to the Smart Ticketing Delivery Board but has had no other specific meetings.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of permanent HS2 Ltd employees are based in Birmingham.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The number of permanent HS2 Ltd employees based in Birmingham has risen to 399 (as of December 16), representing 41% of the permanent workforce. HS2 Ltd is currently advertising and recruiting a further 34 new permanent positions in their Snow Hill Offices. The number of staff based in Birmingham will increase in the coming months as HS2 Ltd continues to recruit for roles that relocate from London.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he plans to take to assist the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner to establish which lessons Highways England, West Midlands Police and the relevant local highways authorities can learn following the incident on the M6 motorway between junctions five and six on 4 February 2016 and the resulting delays in reopening the motorway.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A public hearing is to be held on 18 March which representatives from Highways England will be attending to present their views on the multi-agency response to the M6 incident that occurred on 4 February. In addition, Highways England representatives will be meeting with me on the 22 March to consider a more streamlined approach by agencies when responding to similar incidents in the future.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure participation of representatives from Highways England with any public scrutiny held into the incident on the M6 motorway between junctions five and six on 4 February 2016 by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A public hearing is to be held on 18 March which representatives from Highways England will be attending to present their views on the multi-agency response to the M6 incident that occurred on 4 February. In addition, Highways England representatives will be meeting with me on the 22 March to consider a more streamlined approach by agencies when responding to similar incidents in the future.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment Highways England has made of the effectiveness of the response to the incident on the M6 Motorway between junctions 5 and 6 on Thursday 4 February 2016.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Highways England conducted a structured debrief for this incident on 10 February. This is standard practice for any serious incident. It identified a number of recommendations, which are subject to ongoing discussions with other agencies. Once agreed, they will be used as lessons learnt for the management of future incidents.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) effectiveness of the level of co-operation between local authorities, the emergency services and Highways England in connection with the incident on the M6 Motorway between junctions 5 and 6 on Thursday 4 February 2016.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The structured debrief for this incident was carried out by Highways England on 10 February and included a representative from Central Motorway Police Group.
Three recommendations relating to multi-agency coordination resulted from this meeting and Highways England will continue to work closely with these agencies to take away the lessons learned.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for how many months since 2010 the role of Chief Scientific Adviser for his Department has been vacant.
Answered by Claire Perry
The role of the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department was vacant for a fifteen month period between 1 October 2010 and 15 January 2012.
The role became vacant again from 1 June 2014, but we are currently advertising for this position. The application deadline was originally due to close on 19 January 2015 but has been extended to 2 February 2015 with permission from the Civil Service Commissioner who is chairing the recruitment panel and permission of the hiring manager, Director General, Resources and Strategy at DFT.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many meetings he has had with his Department's Chief Scientific Adviser in the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
As was the case under previous administrations, details of internal meetings are not normally disclosed.