Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress is being made on plans for the expansion of Heathrow Airport; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Courts
On 16 December 2020 the Supreme Court overturned the earlier Court of Appeal decision and declared that the Airports National Policy Statement is lawful. We will carefully consider the Court’s judgment and set out any next steps in due course.
The Government have always been clear that Heathrow expansion is a private sector project which must meet strict criteria on air quality, noise and climate change, as well as being privately financed, affordable, and delivered in the best interest of consumers.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on establishing an air bridge trial route for flights from London to New York using a pre-departure covid-19 testing regime.
Answered by Robert Courts
As set out in the Global Travel Taskforce report, the UK continues to explore pre-departure testing pilots with partner countries on a bilateral basis, including exploring different possible models for such a scheme.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will instruct the Global Travel Taskforce to work with representatives of the airline caterers sector.
Answered by Robert Courts
A core function of the Global Travel Taskforce (GTT) will be to afford policy makers a chance to discuss issues further with those outside of government, as it considers robust and sustainable proposals that will facilitate safer international travel. In its work, the GTT will therefore seek to consult representatives from across the sector.
Further information on the GTT can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/global-travel-taskforce
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on targeted support for the aviation sector and its supply chain.
Answered by Robert Courts
The aviation sector is crucial to the UK’s economy and businesses across the industry are able to draw on the unprecedented package of economic measures we have put in place during this time. This includes a Bank of England scheme for firms to raise capital, two business interruption loan guarantee schemes for different sizes of business, Time to Pay flexibilities with tax bills, financial support for employees and VAT deferrals.
In exceptional circumstances, where a viable company has exhausted all options and its failure would disproportionately harm the economy, the Chancellor has made clear that the Government may consider bespoke support on a ‘last resort’ basis.
The Department for Transport is in close contact with the travel sector, ensuring that the Government is kept fully aware of the latest developments with all firms and to understand where additional policy measures may address specific industry issues.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the alleviation of business rates for airports in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Courts
Business rates are managed by HM Treasury in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Local Authorities. The Department for Transport and HM Treasury have been engaging closely with industry, through the Expert Steering Group, to understand their assessment of the outlook for the sector and implications of any sector specific support measures, including business rates.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress he is making on plans for the development of a southern rail access to Heathrow.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Southern Access to Heathrow (SAtH) would provide extensive benefits to the areas surrounding Heathrow and the South East of England, making getting to the airport quicker, easier and greener for millions of travellers in the boroughs surround the airport, across the south of England as well as creating regeneration opportunities and making Britain a more attractive place to invest and connect UK exporters to new international markets.
While a fast pace on SAtH is important, the scheme is very much in its infancy, and there is as yet much to be developed. It is crucial to the success of the project that time is taken in this early stage to ensure that the initial outcome based specification and commercial model on which the scheme will developed, are appropriate and the right solution to ensure value for money to the fare payer, the scheme proposer and the tax payer.
My Department continues to work closely with the market, including scheme promoters, operators and capital investors, along with the wider private sector and following Ministerial approval and alignment to the HM Treasury Infrastructure Finance Review; my Department intends to provide further guidance to the market regarding the commercial approach for SAtH early in 2021.
We also are continuing to work alongside Network Rail and Heathrow Airport Limited, to integrate with Western Rail Link to Heathrow, while ensuring alignment with other major infrastructure projects, to guarantee the most efficient design and delivery of SAtH.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of road accidents caused by drivers affected by obstructive sleep apnoea.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Department does not collect data on drivers affected by obstructive sleep apnoea in road accidents specifically.
There were 1,528 reported road accidents involving personal injury where a contributory factor of driver fatigue was reported in Great Britain in 2018.
Detailed final statistics on reported personal injury road accidents in Great Britain for 2019 will be published on 30 September 2020.The latest annual published statistics are for 2018.
Contributory factors assigned by police officers do not assign blame for the accident to any specific road user, however they do provide some insight into why and how road accidents occur. They give an indication of which factors the attending officer thought contributed to the accident. Officers do not need to carry out a full investigation of the incident before allocating contributory factors; they usually use professional judgement about what they can see at the scene. Not all accidents are included in the contributory factor data; only accidents where the police attended the scene and reported at least one contributory factor are included.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish his strategy for the recovery of the aviation sector following the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The government have been developing a recovery plan for aviation, and are aiming for this to be published this autumn.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with (a) catering, (b) security, (c) hospitality and (d) ground handling companies in the aviation sector on the (i) challenges those businesses face as a result of the covid-19 outbreak and (ii) adequacy of Government support to maintain employment in their businesses.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
We have worked closely with the sector alongside Treasury colleagues on the question of Government support. As we have always stated Government stands ready to support companies during this pandemic. Companies can draw upon the unprecedented package of measures, including: schemes to raise capital, flexibilities with tax bills, and financial support for employees. If firms find themselves in trouble because of coronavirus, and have exhausted the measures already available to them, the Government is prepared to enter discussions with individual companies seeking bespoke support as a last resort, having exhausted all other options.??Any intervention would need to represent value for money for taxpayers.
It would be inappropriate to comment on discussions held with individual companies.