RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP RMT Parliamentary Group Report 2nd December 2006 – 27th February 2007 (Inclusive of the Christmas recess) 1 RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP Contents Executive Summary 3 Parliamentary Group 5 Rail 9 · Meeting with Tom Harris (Rail Minister) · First Great Western rail franchise · GNER rail franchise · Central Trains · East Coast franchise · Closure of Southeastern ticket offices · Environmental Case for Rail · Anti-Social Behaviour on Northern Rail · Sale of Rail land · Grayrigg rail crash London Underground 18 · Fire Safety Regulations · East London Line Maritime 21 · Tonnage Tax · Thames Boatmaster licensing · Race Relations Act · Grounding of the Napoli Buses 25 Other Campaigns 26 · Trade Union Freedom Bill · Public Service Not Private Profit · John 4 Leader Campaign · BNP Trade Union Front Annex 1 – EDMs 28 Annex 2 – Letters 36 Annex 3 – Hansard and Group Members 45 2 RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP Executive Summary This report covers the activities of the Group from 2nd December 2006 to 27th February 2007, which has included the Christmas recess and one week half-term recess. In this period, we have held two Group meetings on 12th December 2006 and 6th February 2007. The next meeting of the Group is scheduled for Tuesday 27th March 2007– and will be just prior to the Easter recess. The Group also has a couple of the special meetings arranged in advance of the next Group meeting: · Gillian Merron (Under-Secretary of State for Transport) on bus policy – to be confirmed date in March 2007 · RMT Maritime Seminar – 13th March 2007 In this period, the Group has been invited by the Department for Communities and Local Government to establish a working party on the fire precautions regulations at sub-surface rail stations. The first meeting was held on 7th February and the second meeting will take place on 14th March. Briefings have also been supplied to enable Group MPs to intervene in the following adjournment debates: · 10th January – Thames Boatmaster licensing · 24th January – First Great Western rail franchise Written parliamentary questions have been tabled on the following issues: · Central Trains rail franchise · East Coast Mainline rail franchise · East London Line · First Great Western rail franchise · Race Relations Act · Sale of former BR land · Seafarers’ rights So far in the 2006-07 parliamentary session, the Group has tabled or supported 14 EDMs (see below for summary, and Annex 1 for full details of EDM text and a list of all signatory MPs) No. Title Tabling MP sigs to date 133 Fire Precautions Regulations John McDonnell 45 134 Anti-Social Behaviour on Northern Rail Services Jim Cousins 46 286 Future of London Underground Passenger Services Jeremy Corbyn 37 371 GNER Jim Cousins 32 425 Seafarers on the Irish Sea John McDonnell 52 479 Race Relations Act and the Minimum Wage Gwyn Prosser 55 480 Prayer: Merchant Shipping John McDonnell 40 529 Anniversary of the London Underground PPP John McDonnell 30 532 Trade Union Freedom Bill Campaign John McDonnell 82 533 London Underground Cleaning Services John McDonnell 38 730 Rail Freight and the Environment Kelvin Hopkins 71 751 Ticket Office Opening Hours Gwyn Prosser 33 3 RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP 807 Grounding of the Napoli John McDonnell 40 847 British National Party Trade Union Front John McDonnell 100 4 RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP Parliamentary Group David Taylor (Labour MP for North West Leicestershire) has requested to join the Parliamentary Group – following an approach from his local RMT branch. The Group has met twice in this period: on 12th December 2006 and on 6th February 2007. The next full Group meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 27th March 2007. RMT Executive – 5th December 2006 John McDonnell presented the previous Group report, covering the period fro July to 1st December 2006, to the RMT Council of Executives on 5th December 2006. This report will be presented by John to the RMT Council of Executives on Tuesday 6th March 2007. Group Meeting with Rail Minister Tom Harris – 12th December 2006 The meeting was attended by the new Rail Minister Tom Harris MP, who replaced Derek Twigg in September 2006. The Group wrote to the Minister following his appointment and he was keen to come and speak to the Group. Apologies: John Austin, Jeremy Corbyn, Rudi Vis Group Meeting Tuesday 12th December 2006 4pm Room P, Portcullis House From 4pm-4:30pm the Group will consider the Rail issues we wish to discuss with the Minister. Following the meeting with the Minister we will continue with the remainder of the agenda. Agenda 1. Apologies 2. Pre-meeting 3. See attached briefing for Meeting with Rail Minister to discuss: · Future Rail Policy · Rail Franchising and Network Rail · London Rail Services · Staff Assaults 4. London Underground · Future of PPP · Fire Safety Regulations 5. Maritime · Tonnage Tax · Race Relations Act, Minimum Wage · Thames Boatmasters 5 RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP 6. Road Transport · Government Review of Bus industry 7. Other Political and Industrial issues · Trade Union Freedom Bill · Public Services Not Private Profit 8. Any other Business th Group Meeting – 6 February 2007 Gillian Merron MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State with responsibility for bus policy, had been invited to this Group meeting. She replied to the Group and agreed to meet, but due to diary commitments was unable to make this meeting. A separate meeting with Gillian Merron is now being arranged for March 2007. Apologies: John Austin, Katy Clark, Jim Cousins, David Drew, Kate Hoey, Marsha Singh, Rudi Vis Group Meeting Tuesday 6th February 2007 4pm Room P, Portcullis House Agenda 1. Apologies 2. Railways · Future National Rail Policy and Campaigning and Cuts In Rail Services · Railway Fire Safety Regulations – RMT Group Working Party 3. London Underground · London Underground Cleaners · East London Line · PPP 4. Maritime · Tonnage Tax · Race Relations Act, Minimum Wage - RMT Parliamentary Seminar · Stena Seatrader · Thames Boatmasters 5. Road Transport · Government Review of Bus industry 6. Trade Union Freedom Bill / Temporary Agency Workers Bill 7. Other Political and Industrial issues 8. Diary Dates 6 RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP 9. Any other Business The next meeting of the Group will be held on Tuesday 27th March 2007, just prior to the Easter recess. Briefings circulated Since the beginning of December 2006, briefings have been circulated on the following issues: Rail · First Great Western rail franchise Maritime · National Minimum Wage · Race Relations Act · Thames Boatmaster licensing · Tonnage Tax Other · Bus policy · Trade Union Freedom Bill Press releases In addition, several press releases have been circulated to MPs – on the following issues: · Bus policy · CalMac tendering process · Central Trains industrial action · Corporate Manslaughter Bill · Eddington Review · EU rail privatisation · Expulsion of Rodney Law · First Great Western rail franchise and timetabling · GNER redundancies · Grayrigg crash investigation · Late night running on London Underground and industrial action · Level crossings programme · London Underground cleaners · London Underground PPP · Merchant Brilliant cargo vessel · OCS Eurostar cleaners · Overcrowding on South West Trains rail franchise · Scottish signallers · Scotland Transport strategy · South Eastern Trains franchise and ticket office closures · Standards on UK-flagged ships · Thames Boatmasters and river safety · Track maintenance and vertical integration 7 RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP · Track renewals and runaways · Trident spending and transport investment · West Midlands signallers’ 8 RMT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP Parliamentary Convenor: John McDonnell MP RAIL The Group wrote to Tom Harris on 13th November 2006 congratulating him on his appointment as the new Rail Minister (replacing Derek Twigg) and inviting him to the next Group meeting on 12th December 2006. A short report of the meeting is copied below: Rail Minister Tom Harris MP Meeting, 12th December 2006 The Group wrote to the new Rail Minister, Tom Harris MP on 13th November 2006 to invite him to continue the open and constructive dialogue that the Group has established with his predecessors Derek Twigg and Tony McNulty. The Minister agreed to attend the next Group meeting, which was held on Tuesday 12th December. The main items on the agenda raised with the Minister were: · Future Rail Policy · Rail Franchising and Network Rail · London Rail Services · Staff Assaults John McDonnell opened the meeting and welcomed the Minister. Tom Harris replied that he was always available to meet, even at short notice, and has held meetings with various fellow MPs on various rail issues. John asked about Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander’s recent speech on ‘Growing the Rail Network’, which mentioned that he was keen to consult with all stakeholders. John asked if this would include the RMT and the Group. The Minister replied that he would “take it back”, and that he was always happy to meet. On the Eddington Review, the Minister said that a number of stakeholders could be forgiven for thinking that there was a lack of emphasis on spending on rail projects. However, the remit of the Review was to look at how the railways could improve the economy, and from that perspective Eddington did a good job. In July 2007, the High Level Output Specification will set out rail strategy for 2009-14. Last summer, the Group held a successful ‘Sustainable Case for Rail’ seminar, with the previous Rail Minister Derek Twigg. John suggested to the new Rail Minister that there should be a seminar next year on long-term investment into the rail industry and that the Minister’s participation would be welcome. The Minister replied that he would like to participate, diary permitting. On Network Rail (NR), the Group emphasised the improvements since NR took control of track maintenance, but noted that this exposed the inefficiencies in track renewals.