Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 53771 on Railways: Finance, what recent progress she has made on the Union Connectivity Development Fund.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Union Connectivity Development Fund (UCDF) has provided financial support for a range of transport connectivity projects in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This includes funding to support four rail feasibility studies in Northern Ireland, the conclusions of which have just been published in a Translink report.
While there are no plans for further UCDF-supported projects once those already underway are concluded, the Department remains committed to its strong partnerships with the Devolved Governments, focusing on collaboration, capacity building and the sharing of best practice, where appropriate.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure that there are sufficient replacement trains in operation following the withdrawal of the Class 43 HST trains from services in the South West.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The remaining High Speed Train (HST) fleet, including Class 43 power cars, were withdrawn at the end of the Summer 2025 timetable and have been replaced with existing fleet, including the recently introduced Class 175s, the first of which entered passenger services on Monday 15 December.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure that the withdrawal of the Class 43 HST trains from services in the South West does not result in severe disruption and cancellations.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The remaining High Speed Train (HST) fleet, including Class 43 power cars, were withdrawn at the end of the Summer 2025 timetable and have been replaced with existing fleet, including the recently introduced Class 175s, the first of which entered passenger services on Monday 15 December.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps Great British Railway will take to make railway stations in Yeovil constituency more accessible.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognises the significant social and economic benefits this brings to passengers and communities.
In May 2024, the previous government agreed the publication of a list of 50 additional stations selected for initial feasibility work under the Access for All programme, which included Yeovil Junction in the Yeovil constituency. Network Rail has now completed this feasibility work, and the Government will shortly announce which of these stations will progress to the next stage.
The Railways Bill will ensure that the interests of all passengers, particularly those with accessibility needs, are at the heart of decision-making across the railways. Great British Railways (GBR) will have a clear passenger and accessibility duty, requiring it to consider the needs of disabled passengers and to embed improved accessibility at the core of the railway. However, we are not waiting for GBR to be established to deliver improvements. Alongside the Railways Bill, the Department for Transport has published the Roadmap to an Accessible Railway, which sets out the actions being taken now to improve accessibility and the day-to-day travel experience for passengers who need assistance, ahead of GBR’s creation.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of vegetation clearance carried out by Network Rail under temporary variations on Network Rail’s biodiversity commitments.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The government has not made an assessment of the impact of vegetation clearance carried out by Network Rail under temporary variations on Network Rail’s biodiversity commitments. Any work carried out by Network Rail under temporary variation against the vegetation standard, would still be following its biodiversity standard. Network Rail is committed to increasing biodiversity across its estate, but vegetation management is still necessary to maintain a safe and efficient railway.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she will take through the Road Safety Strategy to raise awareness among motorists of their responsibilities when passing pedestrians on roads with no footpaths.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
My Department is developing our road safety strategy and we will set out more details in due course.
The Highway Code was updated in 2022 to include changes to improve safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders, including guidance on safe passing distances and speeds and the introduction of a hierarchy of road users. The advice on safe passing distances in Rule 163 says that motorists should “allow at least 2 metres of space and keep to a low speed when passing a pedestrian who is walking in the road (for example, where there is no pavement)”.
The Government's flagship road safety campaign, THINK! plays an important role in raising awareness of, and encouraging compliance with road safety legislation, including the changes to The Highway Code. THINK! ran campaigns to alert road users of the changes as they came into effect, and broader behaviour campaigns to encourage understanding and uptake of the guidance. Over £2.4 million has been spent on media to promote this campaign, utilising channels such as radio, digital audio, video on demand and social media advertising.
We will continue to promote The Highway Code changes on THINK! and DfT social media channels and via our partner organisations.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the comparative operational performance of publicly owned rail operators versus privately owned rail operators since December 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport holds all the operators that it funds to account for delivering performance for passengers. The Rail Minister meets regularly with the Managing Directors of train operators and their Network Rail counterparts to address poor performance and demand immediate action to raise standards.
The table below shows the most recent data on levels of reliability and punctuality for DfT funded services over the past year. This compares operators currently in public ownership and shows that reliability is higher for operators currently in public ownership under DfT Operator Ltd (DFTO) compared to private sector operators contracted by DfT.
| ||||||||||||||
“Time to 3 punctuality” refers to the proportion of trains calling at stations within three minutes of schedule.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she has taken to recover the 6120 missing responses from the Railways Bill consultation; and what steps she is taking to ensure the integrity of the consultation process for future consultations.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has written to the Transport Select Committee on this issue, a copy of which can be found here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50296/documents/271772/default/.
We have no evidence of other consultations being affected and are taking all steps necessary to ensure our suppliers prevent a recurrence. This includes reviewing our email filtering system logs for all open consultations and seeking separate external assurance on the configuration of our replacement filtering system.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the APPG for Cycling and Walking's report entitled Unregulated and Unsafe: The Threat of Illegal E-Bikes.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government recognises the concerns raised in the APPG report about the safety of e-bikes which do not comply with regulations and the risks associated with battery fires.
The Product Regulation and Metrology Act which received Royal Assent in July, created the powers to allow Government to change regulations to respond to emerging technologies, including e-bikes, batteries and conversion kits.
The Government treats road safety seriously and is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. The Road Safety Strategy is under development and will include a broad range of policies.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish a list of any outstanding safety recommendations from the Air Accident Investigation Branch, along with the planned implementation date for each of the outstanding recommendations.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
All Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) Safety Recommendations are published within the investigation reports to which they relate. In addition, the AAIB provides regular updates on the status of these recommendations on its website. These updates include the responses received, the AAIB’s assessment of those responses, and the progress of any actions taken.
This information is also summarised in the AAIB Annual Safety Review which is published in the second quarter of each year. The review covers recommendations that were opened or closed in the previous year and includes its status at the time of publication as well as expected timelines for further updates.