Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what funding has been allocated to the Airspace Modernisation programme in response to Budget 2021.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The UK’s airspace is an essential part of our national transport infrastructure. The Government is therefore committed to modernising UK airspace, in order to deliver quicker, quieter and cleaner journeys and more capacity for the benefit of those who use and are affected by UK airspace.
The Government has recently announced that it will be providing up to £5.5m to support airspace modernisation over 20-21 and 21-22, to ensure that this work continues, despite the challenges that Covid-19 has presented for the aviation sector.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Government plans to (a) make an assessment and (b) implement changes in response to the consultation on proposed changes to the Highway Code where representations tackle the need to provide safe unloading capacity for bus and coach operators on smart motorways.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Highways England is leading the update of The Highway Code to improve guidance for drivers on motorways and high-speed roads. The public consultation began on 1 March and will close on 29 March. Highways England will assess all consultation responses and determine whether they need to amend the current proposals to address the comments received.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether projects funded by the Rural Gigabit Connectivity vouchers, but not submitted by 19 February 2021, will still be eligible for new Gigabit Broadband Vouchers from April 2021.
Answered by Matt Warman
Since May 2019, eligible homes and businesses in rural areas that are part of a group project have been able to benefit from the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme funded by the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme. Voucher funding is a grant to individual residents and small businesses and is therefore committed when a voucher is issued to a beneficiary, at which point their supplier has 12 months to provide a connection. The Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme is due to close on March 31 2021, by which point all voucher requests must be received.
Due to the success of the voucher scheme, and in line with the government’s ambition to provide access to gigabit-capable broadband to the hardest-to-reach communities in rural areas across the UK, a new gigabit broadband voucher is being developed as part of the UK Gigabit programme. This will target the hardest to reach areas which are least likely to benefit from commercial rollout. The government expects the new voucher to go live in April 2021 and, along with further details of the voucher, a new eligibility checker will be published in order to help consumers identify if they are eligible for a voucher. BDUK will also work with suppliers to help them transition existing projects, where they are eligible, to the UK Gigabit programme so that communities do not miss out on the opportunity for government funding to enable their access to gigabit capable connections.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to open a second tranche of applications for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has made an unprecedented package of support available to businesses that are required to close or which have been severely affected by the restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives.
Following on from closure of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund, other grant support measures have been in place to reflect the changing landscape of local and national Covid-19 restrictions. This includes funding for businesses required to close and discretionary funding for Local Authorities to support other businesses that whilst able to remain open may be severely impacted.
In January, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a further package of business grant support. Business premises that are required by law to close – including those businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors – are able to access grants of up to £4,500 per 6-week period of closure and a further one-off Closed Business Lockdown Payment of up to £9,000.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance his Department issued to Sport England on the criteria used to determine how much Leisure Trusts could receive under the Notional Fund Allocation of the National Leisure Relief Fund.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The National Leisure Recovery Fund seeks to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.
A total of £100 million is available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which will be allocated in a single funding round covering the period 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021. Eligible local authorities include: those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body to and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function.
To help ensure an equitable distribution of the National Leisure Recovery Fund, a Notional Funding Allocation has been calculated for each eligible local authority and funding awards will only be made in excess of the Notional Funding Allocation in the most exceptional circumstances. The basis of the Notional Funding Allocation is a per capita allocation. This has then been adjusted to take into consideration physical activity levels, number of facilities and health outcome indicators.
Government has worked closely with the Local Government Association (LGA), ukactive, the District Councils' Network, Community Leisure UK, Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association and others to make sure the application and funding process is as fast and simple as possible.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether self-catering holiday lets are eligible for support through the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) Scheme covering the period of national restrictions in November 2020 where an existing booking was being honoured starting before 31 October 2020 when the covid-19 lockdown restrictions were announced and continued beyond 5 November 2020 in line with the Coronavirus Update statement on 2 November 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) is available to all businesses in England that have been required to close due to local or national COVID-19 restrictions.
There are three key considerations when a Local Authority determines the eligibility of a business for a grant under the LRSG (Closed):
Where an organisation meets all of these criteria, it is considered eligible to receive a grant through the mandatory LRSG (Closed) scheme.
Local authorities are responsible for making decisions on whether a business qualifies for a grant. In doing so they must take into account guidance released by government Statutory Instruments (including exceptions).
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 November 2020 to Question 119289, whether photographers are able to work (a) indoors and (b) outdoors in areas under (i) tier 1, (ii) tier 2 and (iii) tier 3 covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Photographers who are practising in a work capacity are exempt from the gathering restrictions, though anybody who is not working and is taking part in the photography, including those being photographed, must adhere to the social contact restrictions that apply in that tier both indoors and outdoors.
Photographers cannot operate in premises that are closed, for example in a hospitality setting in tier 3, unless they are ‘making a film, television programme, audio programme or audio-visual advertisement’.
The Government is keeping the restrictions under continual review.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answers of 6 March 2020 to Question 22006 and 24 March 2020 to Questions 30018, 30019 and 30020, if he will urgently meet with representatives of Govia Thameslink Railway, Network Rail and local hon. Members to discuss progress on ensuring the delivery of Thameslink rail services on the Maidstone East line.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
I have asked my officials to arrange such a meeting with my Honourable Friend and other relevant MPs.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what incentives are included within the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement between his Department and Southeastern for good performance and punctuality; and how those incentives differ from the incentives for good performance and punctuality included within the first Emergency Measures Agreement signed between his Department and Southeastern in March 2020.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Under EMA’s, Operators will be paid a maximum of 2% of the cost base of the franchise before the COVID-19 pandemic began, with an element of the fee conditional on operators meeting performance, passenger experience and efficiency targets.
The Management Fee is a fixed periodic fee, and is payable at the end of the EMA whilst the Performance Fee covers the EMA Period, with fixed amounts based on an Operators performance, payable after a performance review has taken place.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many services on the Southeastern Mainline terminating at (a) Dover Priory and (b) Ramsgate have skipped stops since the franchise signed an Emergency Measures Agreement with his Department in March 2020.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Unfortunately, the information required to provide answer to this Parliamentary Question is not held within the Department and therefore should be directed to Network Rail on PublicAffairs@networkrail.co.uk who will be able to assist.