Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2026 to Question 104858 on Roads: Biodiversity, what information her Department holds on the (a) estimated cost, (b) estimated cost range and (c) modelling of the biodiversity net gain for (i) existing and (ii) planned projects related to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project on the Strategic Road Network.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DEFRA’s forthcoming biodiversity net gain impact assessment, which is expected to be published shortly, will set out the impact of applying biodiversity net gain to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Royal Train will be treated as a Great British Railways service for the purposes of network access, charging and operational control once Great British Railways is established.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The 2024-2025 Sovereign Grant and Sovereign Grant Reserve Annual Reports and Accounts, published by the Royal Household, confirmed that the Royal Train will be decommissioned ahead of the current contract expiring in 2027, following a thorough review into its use and value for money. As such it will not become part of Great British Railways (GBR).
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to her Department's report entitled Rail customer experience survey pilot report, published on 25 April 2024, what plans she has to use the survey findings to inform performance standards for public sector rail operators.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department uses customer insight data, including emerging findings from the newly introduced Rail Customer Experience Survey, to inform performance management of all train operating companies, including those which are publicly-owned. The Services Agreement for publicly owned operators also states that performance will be measured using the new survey when data allows.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2025 to Question 82998, whether the Department plans to extend the HGV Parking and Driver Welfare Grant Scheme beyond March 2026; and what assessment has been made of the impact of project withdrawals, scope reductions and planning refusals on the delivery of additional HGV parking capacity.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no plans for further windows of the HGV Parking and Driver Welfare Matched Funding Scheme (MFGS).
To date 16 projects have been withdrawn by the operators. It is estimated that this is a reduction of up to 177 proposed additional HGV parking spaces.
There are no significant impacts on the number of parking spaces where projects have undergone scope reduction.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 101484 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, what estimate she has made of the average amount of public funding provided per chargepoint.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information on the average amount of public funding per public chargepoint is not available. Most public chargepoints have not received any public subsidy.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department provides (a) funding and (b) any other support for increasing (i) grid capacity and (ii) enabling electrification at the Port of Southampton.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy, published in March 2025, sets out domestic goals and commitments to decarbonise maritime transport, and a call for evidence on Net Zero Ports was launched to assess future energy demand at ports such as Southampton and Portsmouth International.
While the Government does not directly fund increases in electricity network capacity, we support Ofgem in their work to incentivise electricity network companies to invest strategically, ensuring plans reflect emerging demands from electrifying sectors. Through the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions, Portsmouth International Port received nearly £20m of R&D funding to support a shore power trial.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 99801, what the estimated annual amount (a) accrued in interest and (b) repaid by British citizens with students loans was in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Department for Education and the Student Loans Company (SLC) are undertaking work to improve the quality and consistency of demographic data held across their systems, to support the timely answering of parliamentary questions. Changes in the application process over time, including the transition to electronic applications, mean that demographic data held for earlier cohorts can be held differently across multiple SLC systems and repayment and interest calculations continue to include these early borrowers.
As a result, it is not currently possible to produce robust repayment figures broken down by British citizen status within the required timescales. Once this work is complete, the department expects to be able to provide more detailed information in response to such questions.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the Government Property Agency’s total expenditure was in 2024–25 on measuring, collecting, reporting or validating greenhouse gas emissions across the Government estate; and what the Agency’s projected annual expenditure is for each of the next five financial years on those activities.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
This information is not available. GPA do not manage the greenhouse gas emissions data across all of the government estate.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency were (a) in post and (b) delivering practical car driving tests in January 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The national average waiting time for a practical car driving test in January 2026 was 21.2 weeks.
Data for January 2026 on the number of full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), that are in post and delivering practical car driving tests, will not be available until later in February.
As of 30 December 2025, there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners (DE) in post. Of those, 1,542 FTE were available to deliver practical car driving tests.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time for a practical car driving test was in January 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The national average waiting time for a practical car driving test in January 2026 was 21.2 weeks.
Data for January 2026 on the number of full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), that are in post and delivering practical car driving tests, will not be available until later in February.
As of 30 December 2025, there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners (DE) in post. Of those, 1,542 FTE were available to deliver practical car driving tests.