Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to lay guidance on licensing functions under taxi and private hire vehicle legislation before Parliament.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department is currently updating the existing guidance on local authority licensing functions for taxi and private hire vehicles. We will consult on a draft once the Policing and Crime Bill, which provides a new power for statutory guidance, has received Royal Assent.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, (a) how much has been paid to officials of his Department as an additional incentive for working overtime on top of their normal overtime payments, (b) how much has been offered to any individual staff member for a one-off occurrence, (c) how many staff received such incentivised additional payments, (d) from which budgets such payments were made and (e) at which Ministerial or official level the business cases or payment approval for such payments was made in (i) each of the last five years and (ii) 2016 to date.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department for Transport, comprising the central Department and the Executive Agencies, has paid a total of £62,266 on out of hours working payments in addition standard overtime payments since January 2016. Since January 2016, 113 individuals have received an additional out-of-hours payment. No additional payments have been offered to individual members of staff for a one-off occurrence.
Arrangements for these out-of-hours payments were agreed by People Committee in the central Department and the appropriate Executive Boards in the Executive Agencies. Individual decisions on payments are taken by HR and the payments are funded from the Department’s salary budget.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he took to fulfil the terms of clause 9.2 of the Franchise Side Agreement with passenger transport executives (PTEs) in receipt of consultation with affected PTEs on plans for reduced opening hours of ticket offices by Northern Rail.
Answered by Andrew Jones
This proposal was developed by Northern Rail as part of a package of efficiency savings to reduce cost to the taxpayer. As a consultee, the Secretary of State considered whether the proposals met the criteria for a Minor Change under the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement.
(a) These factors are not routinely recorded.
(b) A new franchise will be let prior to the tram-train services commencing. It would be for the future operator to consider amending ticket office hours or station procedures as passenger demand increases.
(c) Consideration was given to possible detriment to station security or cleanliness. Following the redevelopment of Rotherham Central in 2012, CCTV cameras are in place there. These are monitored remotely by Northern Rail and by South Yorkshire PTE.
Northern was advised, in October 2014, that they should seek buy-in from major stakeholders – including the PTEs – to highlight and remove any weaknesses in their proposals. The criteria for a Minor Change were satisfied. Therefore, as the Secretary of State had no discretion in relation to the decision there was no opportunity for any effective consultation.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether, when approving the request from Northern Rail to reduce the opening hours of the ticket office at Rotherham Central Station (a) he took into account numbers of passengers who sought information, help and use of the waiting room or toilet, (b) assumptions about patronage increase generated by the proposed tram train and (c) any other factors other than ticket sales per half hour period.
Answered by Andrew Jones
This proposal was developed by Northern Rail as part of a package of efficiency savings to reduce cost to the taxpayer. As a consultee, the Secretary of State considered whether the proposals met the criteria for a Minor Change under the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement.
(a) These factors are not routinely recorded.
(b) A new franchise will be let prior to the tram-train services commencing. It would be for the future operator to consider amending ticket office hours or station procedures as passenger demand increases.
(c) Consideration was given to possible detriment to station security or cleanliness. Following the redevelopment of Rotherham Central in 2012, CCTV cameras are in place there. These are monitored remotely by Northern Rail and by South Yorkshire PTE.
Northern was advised, in October 2014, that they should seek buy-in from major stakeholders – including the PTEs – to highlight and remove any weaknesses in their proposals. The criteria for a Minor Change were satisfied. Therefore, as the Secretary of State had no discretion in relation to the decision there was no opportunity for any effective consultation.