Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much public funding P&O Ferries has received through the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The first round of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition awarded funding to the Dover Clean Ferry Project for a feasibility study between September 2021 – March 2022. The University of Kent was the lead organisation and P&O Ferries was one of their partners in the project consortium.
Funding was given to P&O for costs incurred as part of the Dover Clean Ferry Project. This amounted to £3,168.45. They received no further funding after this point.
P&O Ferries was not part of any winning bids in the second round of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help improve the services operated by TransPennine Express.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department, which manages TPE’s contract in partnership with Transport for the North, as a temporary solution and subject to strict conditions, agreed that TPE could introduce a revised timetable from mid-September 2022 for services it operates on the West Coast Main Line.
The amended timetable was discussed with Northern stakeholders, including the Manchester Airport Group and Transport for Greater Manchester, and entails reductions in services back to a similar level provided pre-May 2022, complemented by additional bus services in Cumbria and the Scottish Borders.
My officials have been in regular contact with TPE to manage the provision of services and have agreed a programme of measures to deliver a more reliable timetable, including:
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether there is a short-term service improvement plan in place for TransPennine Express.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department, which manages TPE’s contract in partnership with Transport for the North, as a temporary solution and subject to strict conditions, agreed that TPE could introduce a revised timetable from mid-September 2022 for services it operates on the West Coast Main Line.
The amended timetable was discussed with Northern stakeholders, including the Manchester Airport Group and Transport for Greater Manchester, and entails reductions in services back to a similar level provided pre-May 2022, complemented by additional bus services in Cumbria and the Scottish Borders.
My officials have been in regular contact with TPE to manage the provision of services and have agreed a programme of measures to deliver a more reliable timetable, including:
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will meet with (a) Manchester Airport and (b) other business in Manchester affected by service performance of TransPennine Express to discuss potential improvements to that service.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Ministers are always happy to discuss opportunities to work together with business partners to improve rail services for passengers across the North and the Northern economy. The Transport Secretary will shortly be meeting a number of Northern mayors to discuss these issues and we look forward to conversations with business and other stakeholders in the future.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made changes to the Maritime 2050: People Route Map, published on 7 September 2019, following the (a) covid-19 pandemic and (b) the actions of P&O Ferries.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department has worked with the sector to publish a Maritime Recovery Route Map in June 2022 to help boost the sector’s recovery from the pandemic. The Route Map has a dedicated section on People and Skills and sets out progress on the Seafarer Protections Nine-Point Plan. Over £2.4m funding was announced alongside publication of the Route Map to support maritime skills, diversity, careers and seafarer wellbeing.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has received advice from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on the safety of (a) roster patterns and (b) minimum crewing levels in the short sea ferry sector since 17 March 2022.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department is currently developing a new Seafarers’ Charter, which aims to boost long-term working conditions for seafarers. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency have been involved with the development of the Charter, along with the wider maritime industry. The Department for Transport and Maritime and Coastguard Agency are both of the view that roster patterns and crewing levels are important areas that require further research.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to implement the Nine-point plan for seafarers, published on 6 July 2022.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Delivery of the nine-point plan continues at pace. A key aspect of this has been the development of the Seafarers’ Wages Bill, which progressed to Third Reading in the House of Lords on 07 November 2022. The Bill will now progress into the House of Commons, marking a major step towards ensuring that seafarers with close ties to the UK are paid at a rate at least equivalent to the UK National Minimum Wage.
We are continuing with delivery of the wider nine-point plan, including engagement with our near European neighbours to explore the creation of minimum wage equivalent corridors, as well as working through international organisations to create a step change in seafarer welfare.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether seafarer (a) training and (b) employment policies are within the remit of the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The first package of interventions announced by the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) included a commitment to explore green skills initiatives, in partnership with the Department for Education and the National Shipbuilding Office.
UK SHORE will continue to work across government and industry on options to support the training and skills required for zero emission shipping.
Employment policy is not within the remit of UK SHORE.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many treatments were scheduled for review by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group in the last review round in May 2022; how many of those scheduled were approved; and how many could not be approved as the budget had been used by higher priority treatments.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England makes annual decisions on which new specialised treatments should be routinely commissioned. The decisions are based on advice from the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group, which includes of doctors, health experts and patient representatives and taken by the NHS England Board.
Treatments are grouped into five levels of priority, with those of the highest relative clinical benefit for patients and the lowest relative cost classified as level one and treatments with the lowest relative clinical benefit and highest relative cost classified as level five. The outcome of the latest prioritisation round is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/october-2022-prioritisation-decisions/
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the funding allocation from NHS England for the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group was in (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22.
Answered by Will Quince
The Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) makes recommendations to NHS England on the relative priority for investment in new specialised treatments which have not received a technology appraisal from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Funding to determine the number of new treatments which can be routinely commissioned is set annually as part of the overall specialised commissioning allocation process. In 2021/22 and 2022/23, £31 million was made available recurrently to support the CPAG’s recommendations. In 2020/21 different funding arrangements were put in place due to the temporary financial regime introduced during the pandemic.