Examination of Witnesses (Questions 477-479)
JIM FITZPATRICK
MP AND MR
STEPHEN FIDLER
27 FEBRUARY 2008
Q477 Chairman: Good afternoon, important
persons! I am sorry to have kept you waiting and you will be aware,
Minister, that almost as soon as you begin to speak we shall be
forced to run from the room! You will not take it personally,
I know. Can I ask you first, for the purposes of the record, to
identify yourself and your colleague?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Chairman, I am
Jim Fitzpatrick, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the
Department for Transport, and on my right is Mr Stephen Fidler,
who is the Divisional Manager for Freight & Logistics at the
Department.
Q478 Chairman: Thank you very much,
Minister. Did you have something you wanted to say to us?
Jim Fitzpatrick: If I could make
a brief opening comment, I would be very grateful, Chairman and
colleagues. Thank you for the invitation to be here today. If
you would allow me to say, this inquiry comes at an important
stage in the Department's ongoing work to develop a much clearer
recognition of freight's role—across modes—in transport
strategy. The memorandum the Department submitted sets out our
current strategic approach to freight. Essentially, we see freight
as a private sector business. We only intervene where there is
a legitimate public interest in doing so, such as for safety or
environmental reasons, or when we have responsibilities for infrastructure,
or where there is a need for a long-term planning framework. We
do not think it would be the right thing to develop a totally
freestanding freight plan. Very little, if any, infrastructure
funded by the Government is provided solely for freight. Even
ostensibly "rail freight" schemes can have very significant
passenger benefits by freeing up capacity on main lines for inter-city
or other services. What we are committed to doing is ensuring
that freight is addressed fully in all our wide strategy work.
It has to be an integral part in all of our investment and planning
decisions. We need to be able to explain much more clearly how
our strategy meets the needs of freight users and how different
freight modes fit together. It may help the Committee, Chairman,
if I mention briefly some important developments since we submitted
the Department's memorandum last autumn. At the end of October,
we published "Towards a Sustainable Transport System"
which set out how we would take forward transport strategy across
the Department. Recognising the role of freight in the UK's economic
prosperity is central to this work. Two weeks ago, as part of
our work towards a Green Paper later this year, we held a major
event for freight users and providers to identify key challenges
for the sector. Both the Secretary of State and myself attended
for part of the day, and the event was chaired by the responsible
Director General from the Department, Dr Stephen Hickey. Over
50 external participants were present and we had a very strong
mix of attendees. They included major retailers (such as Sainsbury,
Marks and Spencer, Alliance Boots and the Co-op), power stations,
manufacturers (such as Ford) and representative groups (including
the FTA, RHA, Sea and Water, Campaign for Better Transport and
the Rail Freight Group). There were also rail, road and water
freight operators present. Alongside this informal consultation
process, we have also started working with industry to get a much
better understanding of "end to end" journeys for freight.
This involves looking at nine case studies of freight journeys
from the customer's perspective and identifying the main causes
of planned and unplanned journey time increases for industry within
the UK. Other detailed projects on freight are also underway,
including analysis to understand more fully the freight sector's
possible contribution to CO2 reduction over the next 10 to 15
years. As for the near future, by the summer we expect to pull
all this work and consultations together into a clear statement
on the challenges for freight—across and between modes—in
our planned Green Paper. We will, of course, also look to reflect
the Committee's input on freight issues in this document and in
the White Paper which will follow late in the year.
Q479 Chairman: Thank you, that is
helpful. The difficulty about some of that is that it does not
seem to include specific targets to reduce the negative effects
of freight transport, such as congestion, accidents, noise or
emissions?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Those questions
will be considered during the course of the consultations and
in the drafting of the Green Paper and the development of the
White Paper in a variety of different forms. We have a whole range
of initiatives which we are trialling in terms of noise and night
time deliveries. There are arrangements between local authorities
and retailers and delivery organisations using equipment which
is silent because it is plastic rather than metal, those kinds
of things, and radios in cabs which automatically turn themselves
off as soon as the doors open. These have been spectacularly successful,
from what we understand, in the early stages. So in terms of noise,
we are looking at that. We are looking at night time deliveries
so that it relieves congestion in that sense, and we are in discussion
with the industry in developing modes. We have our Transport Innovation
fund, which is looking at congesting charging, how to deal with
congestion, and the industry is centrally involved in the discussions
which are taking place there. So in general terms the headline
issues which you mentioned, Chairman, we are addressing them and
we are collecting data and evidence on them and they will certainly
feature in the Green Paper which we will publish later on this
year, because they are fundamental to the efficient operation
of road freight in particular. I have not covered the transfer
to water or rail. We can do that separately, I am sure, in due
course, but in terms of road freight we have invested £1
billion in roads in the last year, so we are doing what we can
to make sure that freight moves efficiently, but we are also talking
directly to the industry and those they serve to make sure they
can operate as efficiently and as effectively as possible.
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