Department for Transport

The A12 scheme was deferred by the previous Government, adding to the overall cost of the scheme as set out in the table below.

In July 2025, following the conclusion of the Spending Review, the Government took the difficult decision not to proceed with the A12 scheme, to provide certainty for the public.

The Department recognises the importance of this junction as a key connection between the M1, the A421 corridor, and the wider Milton Keynes and Bedford area. National Highways is considering options for major improvements to it as part of future investment planning to inform future Road Investment Strategies. The work is at an early stage and is focused on options for improving the operation of the three roundabouts that form the junction to increase capacity and strengthen safety, whilst supporting regional growth.

The Department for Transport continues to work with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on an Off-Road Machinery Decarbonisation Strategy, which includes transport refrigeration units (TRUs). This strategy will set out how off-road machinery can further decarbonise while maintaining competitiveness, attracting investment and supporting growth. To support this, we are reviewing the findings of a multi-year research project commissioned to ZEMO Partnership into the emissions from diesel-powered auxiliary engines, including from TRUs used on heavy goods vehicles. Alongside this, the Transport Industrial Commercial Refrigeration project, funded through the DESNZ Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, is expected to publish a roadmap that includes transport refrigeration in Spring 2026. The Department will review the roadmap and consider its implications.

At the Autumn Budget we announced that we will invest an additional £200 million in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, building on the £400 million of funding announced at Spending Review 2025.

The cost of deploying public chargepoints varies widely due to a range of factors including location, speed, anticipated utilisation, and grid connection costs, with many chargepoints delivered without any public funding. Where funding is provided, we monitor average public chargepoint costs via data from DfT grants to ensure value for money for the taxpayer. The Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund has been designed to minimise cost to the public by encouraging local authorities to leverage significant private investment.

In developing the new brand for Great British Railways (GBR), the Secretary of State has carefully considered how to preserve Britain’s iconic railway history. With that in mind, many heritage names like Great Western Railway and London North Eastern Railway will be preserved as regional identifiers within one overarching national brand, which in turn offers passengers consistency and clarity. Heritage stations will also preserve their heritage look and feel.

The Department has considered the impact of the new branding on public confidence, passenger satisfaction and perceptions of value for money. The brand has been developed in-house to provide value for money and undergone audience testing. We want to rebuild a railway the country can be proud of and rely on. The brand incorporates the iconic double arrow and the colours of the Union Jack.

The Department is working to develop a rollout plan for the GBR branding, with a focus on maximising opportunities to ensure value for money, such as repainting trains when they were due to be repainted by their leasing companies.

The brand rollout will be gradual, beginning from this spring at a number of publicly owned operators to demonstrate our commitment to change and to start the journey of simplifying the railway for the public.

To ensure value for money, and consider the environmental impact of a brand change, much of the rollout will be driven by routine asset maintenance cycles – changing the branding as assets are being maintained or replaced. This includes rolling stock, station assets, and uniforms.

The railway today features a huge variety of conflicting signage standards, driven by the wasteful approach in of rebranding operators each time the franchise changed – creating a fragmented and confusing system for passengers, and in some cases not reaching the accessibility standards we would expect.

Great British Railways (GBR) will unify the system for the passenger, ensuring that accessibility is maintained consistently throughout the railway network. In developing the branding, we have ensured that it has followed all relevant legal requirements and guidance, including compliance with relevant accessibility legislation. Audience testing has taken place, including people with a range of accessibility needs.

We are confident that the testing with the public, passengers, and those with disabilities has led to a design that provides ease of comprehension for all passengers. The GBR brand unveiled on the 9 December 2025 is the final approved design.

The brand unveiled on 9 December 2025 was developed in-house by staff at the Department for Transport with support from a livery design specialist who works for a train operator in public ownership. This approach was chosen to ensure good value for money for the taxpayer.

A specialist supplier on audience and accessibility testing was used to ensure that the branding unveiled and deployed would deliver against the Government’s objectives for Great British Railways (GBR) and meet the needs of a variety of users with a range of accessibility needs. This supplier was appointed under the Department’s usual procurement processes which include formal assessments of value for money.

The Department is working to develop a rollout plan for the GBR branding, with a focus on maximising opportunities to ensure value for money, such as repainting trains when they are due to be repainted by their leasing companies and changing station signage when it is life expired.

The brand was developed in-house by the Department for Transport with support from a livery design specialist who works for a train operator in public ownership – with the only minimal design cost being audience and accessibility testing, at £32,400 including VAT. This approach was chosen to ensure good value for money for the taxpayer.

In line with our previous answers, there has been no write-down or impairment in the Department’s accounts from the decision to cancel the Restoring Your Railway programme.

Data has been provided to the police forces to enable them to start contacting those drivers who were impacted by this anomaly and allow the process of redress to begin. While we expect the number of drivers impacted by this issue to be very small, all those notified by the police will receive details on how to contact National Highways, who will consider the details of each claim on a case by case basis.

The Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy sets out a pathway to zero emissions by 2050, and interim goals in 2030 and 2040.

To support the sector transition to zero, and near-zero, emission fuels, the Strategy sets out a number of key policies including; expanding the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to maritime, the introduction of fuel regulations, taking action to reduce emissions at berth, taking proportionate measures to reduce emissions from smaller vessels and increasing the efficiency of maritime operations.

Support is available to the maritime sector for decarbonisation through our UK SHORE Research and Development programme. Over 300 projects across the UK have been supported to date, including those that support the decarbonisation of domestic ferries. In September, I announced a further £448 million of funding for innovation through this programme, including additional rounds of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competitions, and a second round of the Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure competition. We aim to launch the first two of these competitions in Spring 2026 and they will run until 2030.

The Department for Transport has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department for Transport has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

On 5 December, the Government confirmed investment of over £3 billion from 2026/27 for the rest of the spending review period to support local leaders and bus operators across the country to improve bus services for millions of passengers. This includes multi-year allocations for local authorities under the Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG) totalling nearly £700 million per year, ending the short-term approach to bus funding and giving councils the certainty they need to plan ahead.

The formula used to calculate LABG allocations in 2025/26 was the Government’s first step towards ending competitive allocations and it considered population size, levels of deprivation and the extent of existing bus services. To prevent sharp decreases of funding, and as part of the Government’s effort to rebalance inequalities created by competitive allocations, losses were capped at 25%.

We revised this formula for 2026/27 onwards to give a greater weighting to levels of deprivation and population, and to cap any losses at 5% in our continued effort to end the inequalities of competitive allocations once and for all. The formula now also includes consideration of the rurality of local areas in response to a recommendation from the Transport Select Committee.

Further details on the funding formula and local authority allocations for 2026/27 onwards have been published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-bus-grant-allocations. LABG allocations for 2025/26 are also published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bus-service-improvement-plans-local-transport-authority-allocations/total-combined-bus-funding-allocations-2025-to-2026.

In addition to the LABG, the Government has also introduced a £3 million Bus Franchising Fund for Mayoral Combined Authorities that are pursuing franchising to apply for in 26/27, such as Liverpool City Region, to help support their transition to franchised services.

On 5 December, the Government confirmed investment of over £3 billion from 2026/27 for the rest of the spending review period to support local leaders and bus operators across the country to improve bus services for millions of passengers. This includes multi-year allocations for local authorities under the Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG) totalling nearly £700 million per year, ending the short-term approach to bus funding and giving councils the certainty they need to plan ahead.

The formula used to calculate LABG allocations in 2025/26 was the Government’s first step towards ending competitive allocations and it considered population size, levels of deprivation and the extent of existing bus services. To prevent sharp decreases of funding, and as part of the Government’s effort to rebalance inequalities created by competitive allocations, losses were capped at 25%.

We revised this formula for 2026/27 onwards to give a greater weighting to levels of deprivation and population, and to cap any losses at 5% in our continued effort to end the inequalities of competitive allocations once and for all. The formula now also includes consideration of the rurality of local areas in response to a recommendation from the Transport Select Committee.

Further details on the funding formula and local authority allocations for 2026/27 onwards have been published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-bus-grant-allocations. LABG allocations for 2025/26 are also published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bus-service-improvement-plans-local-transport-authority-allocations/total-combined-bus-funding-allocations-2025-to-2026.

In addition to the LABG, the Government has also introduced a £3 million Bus Franchising Fund for Mayoral Combined Authorities that are pursuing franchising to apply for in 26/27, such as Liverpool City Region, to help support their transition to franchised services.

The review and potential approval for temporary variations to any of Network Rail’s standards is undertaken by a competent person (such as the standard owner or a delegated authority). The risk mitigation of the non-compliance needs to clearly be provided along with timescales on when the applicant will become compliant to the standards. The applications are at local levels and can vary. Since the October 2018 review, Network Rail has improved vegetation management training, updated the vegetation standards and deployed technology to allow it to measure compliance of the vegetation profile. This has resulted in the temporary variations being annulled and alignment to the latest version of the standard.

Throughout the procurement and service delivery lifecycle of the UK’s contracted search and rescue helicopter provision, capability is continually assessed against demand, ensuring that it will always meet the needs of the public. Recent examples include demand analyses, audit programmes and reviews of technical requirements to support procurements.

Under public ownership, South Western Railway will be undertaking a complete redesign of their timetable which will include reviewing connections from Woking. In the assessment of options, wider economic impacts will be a consideration, alongside other factors such as reducing the net subsidy requirement of the railway, meeting passenger demand and improving operational performance.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is responsible for ensuring that all drivers meet the medical standards required for safe driving, including for eyesight. Drivers who notify the DVLA of a medical condition that may affect their eyesight may be asked to have a formal vision test. These tests are conducted by Specsavers on behalf of the DVLA. The current contract for this purpose was awarded to Specsavers in February 2025 following a competitive tender exercise. There are no plans to introduce a national register of opticians licensed to carry out these tests.

My Department does not hold information in respect to how many and what proportion of vehicles on UK roads are uninsured.

The new Managing Director of South Western Railway (SWR), Lawrence Bowman, is responsible for both the infrastructure and operations of the SWR network. The new integrated team is working hard to address the issues inherited from the previous private sector operator. Officials are supporting SWR in the delivery of these improvements.

Performance is still below the level that passengers should expect but progress is being made. The number of Arterio trains in service has more than quadrupled under public ownership and SWR has accelerated the recruitment of drivers to address traincrew shortages. Also, over £2 billion of works is being delivered in the current five-year control period to help improve the resilience of railway infrastructure.

We want to expand ticketing innovations such as Pay As You Go (PAYG) to more passengers. The Department considered several factors to determine which stations would have PAYG with contactless rollout for this phase of delivery. These included travel patterns, passenger benefits, operator views and the necessary changes to fares to ensure as many passengers as possible benefit from an improved experience. On 14th December we launched PAYG with contactless at a further 30 stations in the Southeast, and we will continue to ensure operators monitor these changes post implementation.

As of 30 November, 265 staff at the Department for Transport were on a temporary contract - representing 7.2% of the total workforce. We do not collate data on the number of individuals working within the Department at any moment in time as part of consultancy contracts.

Government announced a £2.2bn investment over the next four years for TfL at the Spending Review. This multi-year settlement marks the largest Government capital contribution to London's transport infrastructure in over a decade and is in addition to £485m delivered at the Budget in 2024.

As transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London, it is for him and TfL to assess the merits and financial impacts of capital projects and make decisions on investment including upgrades to the Piccadilly Line.

Expenditure on external consultants is a matter for train companies to manage. The Department has agreed challenging budget targets with every train operating company, including South Western Railway, and officials discuss spending against these budgets on a regular basis.

Expenditure on specific contracts cannot be shared as it is commercially sensitive.

Expenditure on external consultants is a matter for train companies to manage. The Department has agreed challenging budget targets with every train operating company, including South Western Railway, and officials discuss spending against these budgets on a regular basis.

Expenditure on specific contracts cannot be shared as it is commercially sensitive.

The Department for Transport does not hold this information.

The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. Authorities do not have a duty to light their networks but, where lighting has been provided, the authority has a duty to maintain it.

The Government encourages local authorities to consider best practice when making decisions about lighting on their networks and to work closely with emergency services and other key partners when considering the street lighting needs of local communities. Advice is available in the UK Roads Leadership Group’s Code of Practice for Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which references British Standards for road lighting.

The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment for local highways maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This funding is provided to local authorities to maintain all parts of the highway network, including lighting columns, bridges, cycleways and footways. In addition to increasing the available funding, the Department has confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, providing greater funding certainty to local authorities. This will help them to plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance.

The Department allocates funding to local highway authorities based on a formula, which takes account of road lengths in each authority area, as well as the number of bridges and lighting columns.

The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. Authorities do not have a duty to light their networks but, where lighting has been provided, the authority has a duty to maintain it.

The Government encourages local authorities to consider best practice when making decisions about lighting on their networks and to work closely with emergency services and other key partners when considering the street lighting needs of local communities. Advice is available in the UK Roads Leadership Group’s Code of Practice for Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which references British Standards for road lighting.

The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment for local highways maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This funding is provided to local authorities to maintain all parts of the highway network, including lighting columns, bridges, cycleways and footways. In addition to increasing the available funding, the Department has confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, providing greater funding certainty to local authorities. This will help them to plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance.

The Department allocates funding to local highway authorities based on a formula, which takes account of road lengths in each authority area, as well as the number of bridges and lighting columns.

The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. Authorities do not have a duty to light their networks but, where lighting has been provided, the authority has a duty to maintain it.

The Government encourages local authorities to consider best practice when making decisions about lighting on their networks and to work closely with emergency services and other key partners when considering the street lighting needs of local communities. Advice is available in the UK Roads Leadership Group’s Code of Practice for Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which references British Standards for road lighting.

The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment for local highways maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This funding is provided to local authorities to maintain all parts of the highway network, including lighting columns, bridges, cycleways and footways. In addition to increasing the available funding, the Department has confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, providing greater funding certainty to local authorities. This will help them to plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance.

The Department allocates funding to local highway authorities based on a formula, which takes account of road lengths in each authority area, as well as the number of bridges and lighting columns.

This Government fully recognises the importance of ensuring that the Blue Badge scheme supports those who have their mobility impacted by substantial and enduring disabilities and other health conditions. The current eligibility criteria are focused on the impact on an applicant’s mobility, rather than based on specific disabilities or conditions, and can be found on GOV.UK.

Whilst Parkinson’s and other fluctuation conditions are not automatically eligible for a Blue Badge, applicants may still be eligible for a badge based on the evidence provided. Any decisions on an applicant’s eligibility are ultimately for the responsible local authority.

Eligible Mayoral Combined Authorities are in receipt of £5.7 billion of funding through the City Regions Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) programme, running for a five-year period from April 2022 to March 2027. This devolved funding affords Mayors the ability to develop and implement large scale transport interventions that most benefit their areas.

Following the Summer Spending Review, £15.6 billion of devolved funding was confirmed to provide Transport for City Regions (TCR) settlements for the nine eligible Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs) from the period April 2027 to March 2032.

The tables below show the average number of working days taken to process driving licence applications made both online and not online for December 2025 up to 16 December for both group 1 (cars and motorcycle) and group 2 (lorry and bus) licences.

Regulation 27(1)(a)(iii) of the Vehicle Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002 allows the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to provide registered keeper information to local authorities in England and Wales for any purpose connected with its activities as an enforcement authority within the meaning of Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004.

The Department does not provide specific guidance on the use of second-hand infant car seats and has not evaluated the feasibility of an inspection or certification process for such products.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) advises against using second-hand car seats for several reasons, including the risk of hidden damage from previous collisions. Such damage can compromise the seat’s structural integrity even when no visible defects are present. Detecting these issues would require complex and costly assessment techniques, making an accredited inspection or certification process impractical.

The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place to ensure a customer’s road safety knowledge and ability to identify developing hazards is current. This validity period is set in legislation, and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.

Ensuring learner drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the learning to drive process as new drivers are disproportionately casualties on our roads. Learners therefore need to pass another theory test if their two-year theory test certificate expires.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is doing everything it can to ensure that learners can access practical tests within the theory test validity period, to prevent candidates from having to retake the theory test.

The United Kingdom recognises the importance of all vessels complying with international maritime law and we are concerned by the rise of ships without nationality. We are determined to continue to uphold international maritime law and to challenge abusive flag practices.

There are regular conversations with train operators who are responsible for operating and delivering the passenger timetable and ensuring they have enough rolling stock to meet their requirements. In 2026 there will be introduction of new modern fleets on South Western Railway and East Midlands Railway which have more passenger carrying capacity than the existing fleets.

Under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, a driver is required to stop and report a collision involving specified animals including horses, cattle, asses, mules, sheep, pigs, goats or dogs, but not cats or wild animals. This requirement arises from their status as working animals rather than as domestic pets. To introduce such a measure within the provision of section 170 would require primary legislation

There are no plans to amend section 170 of the Road Traffic Act to make it mandatory for drivers to report road collisions involving cats.

Having a law making it a requirement to report road collisions involving cats would be very difficult to enforce and we have reservations about the difference it would make to the behaviour of drivers, who are aware that they have run over a cat and do not report it.

Although there is no obligation to report all animal deaths on roads, drivers should, if possible, make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals, such as cats, and advise them of the situation.

Since June 2024, all cats in England over 20 weeks of age must be microchipped and registered on a compliant database, unless exempt or free-living. This will make it easier for National Highways and local authorities to reunite cats with their keeper.

The Government knows how important reliable public transport services are in enabling people to stay connected and access education, work and vital services across the country. We also know that local bus services can be a lifeline in rural areas and can be the only means for communities to stay connected.

The Government is taking ambitious steps to improve local bus services across the country, including introducing the Bus Services Act 2025 which puts passenger needs, reliable services and local accountability at the heart of local bus services by putting the power back in the hands of local leaders right across England.

We also recently confirmed long-term investment of over £3 billion from 2026/27 to support local leaders and bus operators across the country to improve bus services for millions of passengers. This includes multi-year allocations for local authorities under the Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG) totalling nearly £700 million per year, ending the short-term approach to bus funding and giving councils the certainty they need to plan ahead to improve services for local communities. LABG allocations have been calculated using a fair and transparent approach that considers population size, levels of deprivation, the extent of existing bus services, and rurality.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority will be allocated £133.5 million under the LABG from 2026/27 to 2028/29. This is in addition to the £46.8 million they are already receiving under the LABG this financial year.

The Department for Transport has developed and published a Connectivity Tool to measure people’s ability to get where they want and need to go, using walking, cycling and public transport to reach jobs, shops, schools, healthcare and other essential services in any location in England and Wales. The Connectivity Tool combines transport and land use data to generate a national measure of connectivity and provides new insights to those developing new transport schemes or planning for growth to more easily understand how new transport infrastructure can impact an area’s connectivity.

As announced in the Child Poverty Strategy, published on 5 December 2025, the Government will also develop a transport poverty tool, which will aim to capture where poor transport connectivity and affordability limits people’s access to employment and essential services.

The Department for Transport does not hold the information requested. On-road enforcement of number plate offences is a matter for the police.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and others to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime, including the use of cloned and ghost number plates.

The Department for Transport does not hold the information requested. On-road enforcement of number plate offences is a matter for the police.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and others to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime, including the use of cloned and ghost number plates.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) does not hold information about the number of vehicle keepers who have been convicted for number plate offences as enforcement of number plates offences is a matter for the police.

The DVLA does not have the relevant powers to take forward prosecutions of number plate suppliers. Such prosecutions are taken forward by the police and Trading Standards.

The DVLA’s enforcement officers work with the police and Trading Standards to carry out educational and compliance visits to registered number plate suppliers. Enforcement officers carry out inspections to check working practices and inspect number plates on the premises. Enforcement officers can also inspect records held, take copies and/or seize the records.

The DVLA’s enforcement officers carry out intelligence led enforcement activities to tackle a wide range of offences, actively working with partners to investigate potential offences. While the DVLA does not take forward prosecutions, its enforcement officers may attend court as an expert witness in any such proceedings.