Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average processing time was for driving licence applications in December 2025.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 12 January to question UIN 103613.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what her proposed timeline is for publishing her Department's response to the consultation and evidence-gathering exercise on removing the 50km restriction for 18 to 20-year-old bus and coach drivers.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In April 2024, the previous government launched a consultation to help support driver recruitment, including a measure to amend licensing restrictions which would enable 18 to 19-year-olds to drive a bus and coach over 50km when driving a regular service, aiming help to increase the number of available bus drivers, particularly for longer, more rural routes.
Following the change of government, the Department has re-engaged with industry to better understand the likely effect of removing the current restrictions.
Once all responses have been gathered, they will be considered alongside contributions from other stakeholders. This combined evidence base will be used to determine our next steps.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will provide, for each driving test centre in Great Britain, the car practical driving test waiting time in weeks in January 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
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.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has she made of requiring (a) regulatory and (b) policy frameworks to be in place before the Heathrow third runway project can proceed to its next phase.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
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.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if her Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of road signs used by local authorities to help prevent road causalities among (a) hedgehogs and (b) other small mammals.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has made no such assessment. Local authorities are responsible for the installation of the small wild animal road signs.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Written Statement HCWS1232 on 12 January 2025, what steps she is taking to minimise disruption to road users as a result of additional highways maintenance.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has provided a record investment of £7.3 billion for local highways maintenance over the next four years. Investing into improving the condition of local roads is crucial to reduce disruption to motorists, for whom potholes can pose a safety risk or lead to damage to vehicles.
Local highway authorities themselves are responsible for maintaining their network and for the delivery of maintenance works. By providing them with long-term funding certainty, the Department enables them to move away from reactive repairs towards planned and preventative maintenance approaches. These keep roads in good condition for longer, prevent potholes from forming, and reduce the need for unplanned emergency repairs which can often lead to the greatest disruption.
In addition, the Department has introduced an incentive element to its highways maintenance funding. To gain access to their full funding allocation, local highway authorities will have to publish highways maintenance transparency reports and set out how they comply with best practice, including in relation to minimising disruption to road users. This is also considered by the Department’s recently published rating system for local highway authorities. The ratings will be updated annually to provide an incentive to local highway authorities to adopt best practice, and to enable the Department to identify where they need to improve and to support them. Further guidance on minimising disruption from maintenance works is also available in the Code of Practice for Well Managed Highway Infrastructure.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of closing DVSA testing centres on driving standards.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is committed to providing an effective and efficient driving test service for its customers and keeps its estate under continual review.
DVSA strongly encourages learners to drive on a variety of different roads and not just near to the location where a test centre is based. The driving test is designed to assess a driver’s ability to drive independently without instruction, taking into account the road and traffic situation at the time. Traffic situations change constantly, and road networks and layouts differ, therefore, exposing learner drivers to as many scenarios as possible will provide them with the skills and knowledge they require to drive on their own, and not just for the test.
Learner drivers should be taught transferable skills that allow them to identify, plan and safely navigate hazards that they have not had the opportunity to encounter previously.
Asked by: Jen Craft (Labour - Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 21 November 2025 to question 91075, how much has been spent on the display of (1) on-screen human interpreters and (2) artificial intelligence creations of British Sign Language at railway stations.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department and its public bodies have not yet directly taken steps to develop or use artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to British Sign Language. However, as described in both our Transport artificial intelligence action plan - GOV.UK and our DfT science, innovation and technology plan 2025 - GOV.UK, the Department has used its First of a Kind funding programme to support innovative AI projects like Signapse Ltd’s mobile app that uses AI to turn timetable and station information into British Sign Language for deaf customers.
The Department’s Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) programme provides early‑stage funding for proof‑of‑concept transport innovations. To date, only one TRIG project has focused specifically on British Sign Language and passenger communications: the 2022 Luna Personal Sign Language Avatar Assistant, which developed a prototype enabling passengers to access wayfinding and journey information in BSL on their own devices. This project received a £30,000 grant from the Department.
The Department does not hold information on the amounts spent by train operating companies or other station operators on these systems. Network Rail have advised that they currently use pre‑recorded British Sign Language (BSL) videos rather than AI‑generated signing, following feedback from the Deaf community. Network Rail has also indicated that it has invested in providing BSL content in stations; however, the Department does not hold verified figures for this expenditure.
Asked by: Daniel Francis (Labour - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the London Borough of Bexley's news story entitled Bexley's Roads 7th best in England, published on 12 January 2026, if her Department will publish the data cited in that story.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department published a new traffic light rating system on 11 January. Under this system, all local highway authorities in England received a red, amber or green rating based on the condition of their roads, how much they spend to maintain their roads, and whether they do so using best practice. The ratings can be found online, at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-road-maintenance-ratings/local-road-maintenance-ratings-2025-to-2026.
The full methodology and data sources used to produce the ratings has also been published online. This includes a table setting out methodological detail on the individual metrics and scores used to calculate local authorities' ratings. Further detail can be found online at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/methodology-used-to-calculate-ratings-for-local-road-maintenance.
Bexley received an overall amber rating, with individual scorecards showing green for condition, green for spend and amber for wider best practice.
Bexley received a green rating for their road condition. This rating was worked out based on the road condition statistics for the financial year ending 2024. Detail about these statistics can be found online, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/road-network-size-and-condition. Rankings are not published as part of these road condition statistics.
The ratings are not designed to provide a ranked list of local highway authorities, but instead assign authorities a rating within the broader categories of red, amber, or green.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reforming local roads funding.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has reformed local roads funding by increasing the available funding, providing greater funding certainty to local highway authorities, and introducing new performance based incentives and a rating system to ensure this investment is used effectively and in line with best practice in highways maintenance.
At the Autumn Budget, the Government confirmed a record £7.3 billion for local highway maintenance over the next four years. By providing long-term funding certainty, local highway authorities will be able to better plan ahead and move away from expensive and reactive repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance, which keeps roads in good condition for longer and prevents potholes from forming in the first place.
Earlier in January, the Department introduced a new traffic light rating system for local highway authorities. Under this system, all local highway authorities in England received a red, amber or green rating based on the condition of their roads, how much they spend to maintain their roads, and whether they do so using best practice. These ratings are designed to promote good asset management and encourage a preventative approach to highways maintenance. As in the 2025/26 financial year, a proportion of highways maintenance funding will continue to be allocated as incentive funding linked to authorities’ transparency and performance.