Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on progress being made by (a) the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure and (b) other employer-led further education colleges in meeting the skills requirements of the HS2 rail programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
(a) Officials within DfT are working closely with their opposite numbers in DfE regarding NCATI. DfT are active members of the Steering Group overseeing the Structure and Prospects Appraisal (SPA) being led by DfE’s Further Education Commissioner to ensure its future model is sustainable and delivers on DfT Policy objectives.
(b) HS2 Ltd and its supply chain continue to work with Further Education Colleges on a number of employer and college-led initiatives and programmes. The table below summarises the main activities:
Name of college | Initiative | Additional Information |
Buckinghamshire College Group (Aylesbury, High Wycombe & Amersham) | CITB Construction Skills Fund | EIffage-Kier, Main Works Contractor, bid for and won CITB funded training through a number of training providers including Buckinghamshire College Group from May 2019 -present. Benefitted 180 individuals to date: of those, 153 completed Entry into Construction programme, 15 completed qualifications in both Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) & Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH), plus a further 8 in IEMA and 4 in IOSH. |
Buckinghamshire College Group | Careers Fairs | Eiffage-Kier and Align, Main Works Contractors, attended careers fairs to talk about career opportunities with young people between Feb 2018 – May 2019 |
Derby College | Professional Construction Employers’ Group / T-Level Taskforce | HS2 Ltd has been a member of the Professional Construction Employers’ Group since September 2019, and on the T-Level Taskforce since its inception in December 2019 to assist in development of the T level in Construction: Design, Surveying and Planning. |
Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College | Mayor’s Construction Academy | The Mayor’s Construction Academy (MCA) is a London Mayoral initiative to deliver the skilled workforce needed to support London’s housing and infrastructure needs. Ealing, Hammersmith and West London run one of the MCA Hubs that is responsible for co-ordinating the provision of relevant training. HS2 Ltd, Skanska Costain Strabag (SCS Railways), Balfour Beatty Vinci Systra (BBVS) and Align sit on the Employer and Partnership Boards of this MCA Hub to ensure that the training that is delivered and co-ordinated meets HS2’s needs as far as possible. |
Harrow College and Uxbridge College | Institute of Technology | HS2 Ltd, BBVS and Align sit on the Employer Advisory Board for the Institute of Technology delivered by Harrow College and Uxbridge College, in partnership with Brunel University. This has included supporting a number of activities including an apprenticeship fair and speed networking event at Uxbridge College as part of National Apprenticeship Week in February 2020. |
Newham College | Strategic partnership with the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure | HS2 Ltd, Costain Skanska, SCS Railways, Mace Dragados, BBVS and Align are in active discussions about how we can support Newham College, linked to their strategic partnership with the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure. This includes the potential for specifically supporting the Institute of Technology they run in partnership with Queen Mary University. Other activities have been supported by HS2, such as an apprenticeship fair held at Newham College’s Stratford campus as part of National Apprenticeship Week in February 2020. |
Northampton College |
| HS2 Ltd, Eiffage-Kier, and Flannery Plant Hire (Tier 2 supplier) have worked collaboratively with Northampton College and there are plans to expand on this work in the future (e.g. virtual careers events) |
Solihull Council | Careers & Apprenticeship Fair | HS2 Ltd promoted our apprenticeship and graduate opportunities at the Solihull College 2020 Careers & Apprenticeship Fair in March. |
South & City College, Birmingham | Women into Construction Project | South & City College delivered the 2-week employability training element of the Women into Construction project in May 2019. Following the 2 weeks employability training, participants then completed a 4-week work placement on the HS2 programme. The project trained a total of 16 women that were previously not in employment. 8 women (50%) progressed into employment or further accredited training. The majority of the employment offers were within the HS2 supply chain. |
Walsall College | Walsall Expo | HS2 Ltd joined our Tier 1 Main Works Civils Contractor Balfour Beatty Vinci (BBV) at the Walsall Expo in March 2020. Walsall Expo is held at Walsall College and organised by Walsall Works which is funded by Walsall Council to support local people to find jobs, apprenticeships and access training, while also supporting local businesses that are looking to expand and invest in their future workforce. We were able to promote a number of live opportunities including our apprenticeship and graduate opportunities. BBV were also able to promote their Materials Testing opportunities as well as other live vacancies. In total approximately 1,700 jobseekers attended the event. |
Walsall College | T Levels | Balfour Beatty Vinci, Main Works Contractor, is working with Walsall College to deliver their first T level in Construction: Design, Surveying and Planning. |
Warwickshire College Group | Rail and Construction Industry Day | HS2 Ltd, Main Works Civils Contractors Balfour Beatty Vinci & Eiffage-Kier along with Enabling Works contractors Laing Murphy & Fusion attended the Warwickshire College Group Rail and Construction Industry day in March 2019. We provided information to college students on careers in the sector along with running workshops on Building Information modelling (BIM) |
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to increase spending on transport infrastructure in the West Midlands.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Government is investing heavily in better transport infrastructure for the West Midlands.
We have committed around £115 million to two ‘large local major’ schemes, which are now under construction – the A4440 Worcester Southern Relief Road (Carrington Bridge) and the Birmingham Centenary Square tram extension - with more than £400m committed to a further nine road and public transport schemes in the West Midlands.
HS2 is already playing a huge part of the Midlands’ success story, with work well under way at over 60 sites including major development at Curzon Street and Washwood Heath. It will put Birmingham at the heart of Britain’s new high speed network, including two stations within the Birmingham area.
We have allocated £321.5m from the Transforming Cities Fund to West Midlands Combined Authority who are using it to build the Brierley Hill tram extension.
On the strategic road network, Highways England has just started construction on widening the A500 Etruria Valley, a £17.5m investment.
In Rail Control Period 5, we funded a number of schemes in the West Midlands, including the redevelopment of Birmingham New Street, upgrade and electrification of the Chase Line, and extension of the Cross City Line from Longbridge to Bromsgrove.
We also provided £5m to Midlands Connect to develop a strategic outline business case for the Midlands Rail Hub programme. We expect this to be submitted to the Department in June 2019.
In November 2018, the Infrastructure and Pipeline Authority published their Analysis of the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline. The regional analysis of the pipeline shows that over the period of 2018/19 - 2020/21, the West Midlands will receive £255 per person on average each year of planned central government transport investment, which is the 4th highest of the 9 regions and ahead of London.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of regulations on the calculation of car insurance premiums.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Motor insurers are responsible for setting the terms, conditions and premiums for the policies they offer as they are accepting a level of risk when choosing to issue a motor insurance policy.
The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers and the Government does not generally intervene or seek to control the market.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the gender equalisation of car insurance premiums on the cost of car insurance.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Following a European Court of Justice ruling, the use of gender to calculate car insurance premiums ended in December 2012.
HM Treasury is undertaking a statutory post-implementation review of the SI implementing this ban on the use of gender in insurance pricing. This will be published in due course.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the regulation of car insurance premiums.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
There has been no recent discussion with the Financial Conduct Authority on car insurance premiums.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the HM Treasury press release, Chancellor announces £4.5 billion of measures to bring down debt, published on 4 June 2015, what efficiency savings his Department plans to make to achieve reductions of £545 million in its budget.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Chancellor announced savings amounting to £200 million from the Department’s budget for 2015-16. Much of this is taken from anticipated underspends against existing budgets, and from contingency, and does not mean that any of the affected programmes will be cancelled. In addition, the Chancellor announced the sale of the interests of London and Continental Railways in land at Kings Cross, valued at £345 million.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to HM Treasury's press release, Chancellor announces £4.5 billion of measures to bring down debt, published on 4 June 2015, what assessment he has made of the effect on productivity of steps necessary to deliver efficiency savings from his Department's budget.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
No specific assessment has been made of the effect of the announced measures on productivity. The Department will continue to deliver efficiency savings wherever possible as part of the Government’s Long Term Economic Plan.