Asked by: Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what provision of what statute requires that cars sold in Northern Ireland from 1 February 2026 must have EU Vehicle Type Approval; and whether that law changes on 1 January 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The EU type approval regulations for new cars are applied in Northern Ireland by Article 5(4) and Annex II of the Windsor Framework. This has applied since the original protocol entered into force on the 1st January 2021 and will continue to apply after the 1st February 2026.
There will be no changes relating to the application of the EU type approval requirements in Northern Ireland on 1st January 2026.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 4 December 2025 to question 95755, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of lamp columns as speed limit repeaters.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has made no recent assessment of the adequacy of lamp columns as speed limit repeaters. The presence of street lighting in a 30 mph limit acts as the speed limit repeater, this has been law for over 70 years and all drivers are required to learn this in order to pass their driving test.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to increase compliance with 30mph speed limits.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Enforcement of the speed limit is a matter for the police. Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners are operationally independent and policing of our roads and how available resources are deployed is the responsibility of individual chief officers, taking into account the specific local issues.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to regulate the sale and purchase of private escooters.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Under existing legislation, businesses are responsible for ensuring the products they place on the UK market, including e-scooters, are safe. When selling e-scooters, retailers must be clear that they can only be used on private land with the landowner’s permission. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency Market Surveillance Unit carries out surveillance of e-scooter retailers to ensure they are being sold lawfully and that retailers are making legal restrictions on e-scooter use sufficiently clear.
The Product Regulation and Metrology Act, which secured Royal Assent this July, has created powers that will allow government to set specific product regulations and labelling requirements, and hold online marketplaces to account to prevent the illegal sale of e-scooters.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve cross-government understanding of developments in drone technology, and what plans the has to improve inter-departmental collaboration on the regulation and deployment of drones.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This government is delivering the Future of Flight Programme which is a joint programme between the whole of government, the Civil Aviation Authority and industry. A key strategic objective of the Programme is to achieve routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights by 2027.
This year we spent over £21m to fund necessary regulatory changes and to support industry to commercialise the innovation that was made possible through the Future Flight Challenge. The Regulatory Innovation Office has identified drones as one of its first set of five priorities and, jointly with the previous Minister for Aviation, set the Civil Aviation Authority six key priorities to unlock growth in the sector.
As the Minister for Aviation, I chair the Future of Flight Industry Group which brings together key stakeholders across central and local government, the regulator and the industry to agree the strategic directions and ensure that the UK's ambition reflects the sector's needs.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many complaints were reported to British Transport Police for (a) antisocial behaviour, (b) sexual harassment, (c) sexual assault and (d) physical assault on trains in each of the past three years.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The British Transport Police have provided the following figures for the last 3 years. Passenger numbers have been increasing year-on-year since the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions and will account for some of the increase in crime reports. Overall, the railway is a safe environment, with 26.0 crimes recorded per million passenger journeys in 2024/25 (0.0026%), this was 26.8 in 2023/24 and 24.4 in 2022/23.
Offence/Incident Type | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Antisocial Behaviour | 30998 | 32900 | 40932 |
Unwanted Sexual Behaviour | Not available | 1830 | 1958 |
Sex offences | 2251 | 2433 | 2655 |
Violence including assault | 12260 | 14582 | 15522 |
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what transparency, reporting and accounting requirements will be placed on the Office of Rail and Road to undertake effective monitoring and competition oversight of GBR’s retail activities.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
GBR’s licence will require it to comply with a code of practice, which will be owned and managed by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The code will govern GBR’s retail industry management functions and other relevant activity. It will incorporate clear requirements for how GBR interacts with all market participants and impose separation of decision-making where relevant.
Under this approach, third parties will be able to challenge any GBR decisions or actions they consider to be non-compliant, by raising them directly with the ORR. The ORR will be required to investigate and, if it considers that GBR has not complied, it will be able to demand corrective action by issuing binding orders.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, What assessment has been made of the adequacy of training in the use of body worn cameras for rail staff on Train companies contracted to her Department.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Train Operating Companies (TOCs) must comply with the law, which includes the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The Office of Rail and Road, as the independent railway safety regulator for the UK, oversees these legal requirements. Its enforcement powers derive from the aforementioned 1974 Act, and range from giving advice and information, through to prosecution in the courts. This covers issues such as lone working, violence at work etc. The Secretary of State also requests through National Rail Contracts that TOCs measure perceptions of staff safety and develop action plans accordingly. We encourage rail operators to consider the personal safety of its rail staff, including encouraging greater use of Body Worn Video (BWV), which was proven in a 2019 trial to reduce violence against BWV wearing staff at railway stations by 47%.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of ticket sales for season tickets from (a) Longbridge, (b) Northfield and (c) Kings Norton to (i) Birmingham stations, (ii) Redditch and (iii) Bromsgrove in the 2024-2025 financial year.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of season tickets is shown below
Origin | Destination | Number Of Season Tickets |
Longbridge | Birmingham stations | 1,369 |
Longbridge | Bromsgrove | 162 |
Longbridge | Redditch | 216 |
Northfield | Birmingham stations | 2,001 |
Northfield | Bromsgrove | 15 |
Northfield | Redditch | 93 |
Kings Norton | Birmingham stations | 3,446 |
Kings Norton | Bromsgrove | 43 |
Kings Norton | Redditch | 149 |
The Birmingham stations group includes Birmingham Moor Street, Birmingham New Street and Birmingham Snow Hill.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will provide a list of all transport schemes given approval to progress following the Spending Review which had a lower benefit cost ratio score than the Ely Area Rail Capacity Enhancement.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Ely Area Capacity Enhancement (EACE) scheme was paused by the previous government in 2021, and no further funding was allocated to develop, update, or progress the EACE business case. As a result, there has been no ongoing work from which to produce a current or up-to-date benefit–cost ratio, meaning there is no basis upon which to provide the comparisons requested.