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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many volunteer coastguards were recruited by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each year since 2010-11.

Mr John Hayes

There is no central national record of the enrolment of volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers as enrolment is conducted locally at the 340 Coastguard Rescue Teams in the UK, as the need arises.

To provide the information in the format you have requested would be at disproportionate cost to the taxpayer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many coastguards were employed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each year since 2010-11.

Mr John Hayes

The number of Coastguards employed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each year since 2010/11 is as follows:

2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
517	491	469	418	386	416	424

When interpreting the above numbers, it is important to note that the new HM Coastguard structure enables the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) and nine Coastguard Operation Centres (CGOC) to coordinate any incident around the UK coast. Workload and incidents continue to managed locally but all Coastguard Centres now have a national support network available to them during busy periods. These arrangements are most effectively deployed from a smaller national footprint.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate has been made of the (a) coastguard and (b) lifeguard capacity on UK (i) beaches and (ii) coastal waters.

Mr John Hayes

Her Majesty’s Coastguard’s Volunteer Coastguard Rescue Teams are appropriately trained and so can be deployed for any incident on beaches or at the coast. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency continually monitors the local provision of this capability.

Safety at public beaches, and specifically the provision of lifeguarding services, is generally the responsibility of the local authority, who carry out risk assessments to determine appropriate safety measures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to his Department was of each re-tendering exercise held for franchises for (a) long distance and (b) regional passenger rail services in each year since 2005-06.

Paul Maynard

Prior to the re-launch of the Franchising Programme in spring 2013, the costs of different franchising projects were not individually recorded.

The cost of each re-franchising project since the re-launch is as follows:

Franchise	Cost (£M)	Notes
Essex Thameside	4.815	1
Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern	7.288
East Coast	8.429	2
Northern	8.668 (to date)	3
TransPennine Express	7.577 (to date)	3
East Anglia	7.413 (to date)	3

These figures include adviser costs (financial, technical and legal advisers), pay costs for the project team, “non-pay” costs (such as bidder day seminars, public consultations, etc), and VAT where applicable, for the duration of the procurements.

The (admin) sums invested in competent staff and advisors are dwarfed by the (Resource) SPRS benefits to the Department – £200 for every pound spent.

Notes

NOTE 1: The Essex Thameside figure represents the work done after the relaunch of the Franchising Programme. There was a significant amount of work completed prior to the pausing of the programme in autumn 2012 which is not included here.

NOTE 2: The costs for the refranchising of the Intercity East Coast Franchise were not charged to the public purse, but were covered by the Performance Bond that National Express put forward following its default of the previous East Coast contract.

NOTE 3: The figures for Northern, TransPennine Express (TPE) and East Anglia are the latest figures (as at the end of August 2016). East Anglia is still a ‘live’ project. Whilst Northern and TPE have concluded, there are still some residual costs that may affect the final figures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether bidders for the next West Midlands regional rail franchise will be able to remove seats from rolling stock in order to increase passenger carrying capacity; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Maynard

The Invitation to Tender for the West Midlands franchise allows bidders to propose alternative layouts which could include fewer seats and more standing space for services which operate on the ‘Cross-City’ line in Birmingham. This option is included in response to the West Midlands franchise consultation, where there was a particularly strong response from respondents that use this line about changing the current 3+2 seating arrangement to provide wider aisles and more spacious and comfortable standing areas. However, if bidders do propose changes to the seating layouts, they would need to meet certain criteria for this to be permissible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to increase passenger carrying capacity on Inter City West Coast services between cities in the West Midlands.

Paul Maynard

We expect potential bidders for the next Inter City West Coast (ICWC) franchise to plan their train services to meet the needs of their passengers and the wider network. To make sure the Department’s specification best reflects the needs of the passengers and stakeholders of the franchise a public consultation on the franchise was run from 10 May to 2 August this year. This sought the public’s and stakeholders’ views and priorities on a number of areas of the franchise specification. The consultation acknowledged that capacity for additional train services on the West Coast Mainline is limited and sought views on how the franchise could cater for growth.

The responses will help inform us about what we will ask for in the tender documents from the future franchise operator and will be provided to bidders for the franchise to inform their responses. We are now reviewing and analysing the consultation responses and will publish a summary in due course.