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, what assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential implications for Government policies of trends in the level of street clutter on the character of urban areas.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Management of local roads, including placement of fixed street furniture such as signs, benches, bins and cycle racks, is the responsibility of local traffic authorities. Neither good traffic management, nor good streetscape design is helped by over-provision and clutter. The Department’s good practice advice in the Traffic Signs Manual and the Manual for Streets stresses the importance of designing streets in such a way as to reduce clutter. These are available at the following links:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-signs-manual
www.gov.uk/government/publications/manual-for-streets.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the feasibility of new terminals for the proposed third runway at Heathrow Airport being built and operated in competition with those run by the airport.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information about terminals and other airport infrastructure would be provided as part of a development consent order application.
Asked by: Baroness Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to Oxfordshire County Council to develop and build the proposed Greenway route between Thame and Haddenham and Thame Parkway Station.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Spending Review in June 2025, which covers multiple years from 2026/27 onwards, allocated £616 million for Active Travel England to support local authorities to build and maintain walking, wheeling, and cycling infrastructure including dedicated cycling routes. This comes on top of £222.5 million announced in February 2025 for local authorities over 2024/25-25/26.
Active Travel funding supports local transport authorities with developing and constructing walking, wheeling and cycling facilities. Oxfordshire County Council has received £2,650,279 from the Consolidated Active travel fund 2025/6. However, it is up to local authorities to determine and put forward their local active travel infrastructure priorities for funding. As yet, ATE has not been asked to provide design assurance for this potential scheme.
ATE work closely with local authorities to ensure walking, wheeling and cycling routes are safe and accessible. ATE regularly provide design assurance services to local authorities who are planning and designing improvements to new or existing active travel facilities.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of requiring cyclists to wear a high visibility jacket when riding on the road.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Rule 59 of The Highway Code recommends cyclists should wear light-coloured or fluorescent clothing to help other road users to see them in daylight and poor light, with reflective clothing and/or accessories in the dark.
The Department considered making Rule 59 a requirement, rather than a recommendation as part of a comprehensive cycling and walking safety review in 2018. This concluded that the cost of introducing such a system would far outweigh the benefits. Restricting people’s ability to cycle in this way would mean that many would likely choose other modes of transport instead, with negative impacts for congestion, pollution and health.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much taxpayer money in total has been spent on HS2 since its inception to the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department regularly reports on HS2 expenditure through 6-monthly reports to Parliament. As we set out in the latest report published in July 2025, the total overall costs incurred up to the end of April 2025 on HS2 are £40.5 billion (in nominal prices), including expenditure on the former Phase 2.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding is available to support (a) local authorities and (b) police forces with initial installation costs for fixed speed-enforcement cameras.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Part of the money received from drivers attending courses under the National Driver Offending Retraining Scheme (NDORS) goes to the local Road Safety Partnership, where one exists, which includes the local authority, the police and other partners. This is ringfenced to be used for road safety purposes, including the installation and maintenance of safety cameras. Local authorities and the police are also able to use other unringfenced grants to fund additional road safety activity in their area. In areas with no road safety partnership, the funding from NDORS courses goes to the police.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average processing time was for driving licence renewals involving medical assessments in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The table below shows the average number of working days taken to process driving licence applications where a medical condition needed to be investigated before a licence could be issued for both group 1 (cars and motorcycles) and group 2 (lorry and bus) licences.
| Group 1 | Group 2 |
Dec 2024 | 45.32 | 46.65 |
Jan 2025 | 46.1 | 46.29 |
Feb 2025 | 42.65 | 40.55 |
Mar 2025 | 45.48 | 40.64 |
Apr 2025 | 41.64 | 43.49 |
May 2025 | 42.34 | 41.46 |
Jun 2025 | 48.08 | 37.85 |
Jul 2025 | 54.42 | 39.06 |
Aug 2025 | 49.33 | 41.72 |
Sept 2025 | 52.5 | 49.04 |
Oct 2025 | 78.36 | 55.78 |
Nov 2025 | 80.27 | 47.71 |
Driving licence applications where a medical condition(s) must be investigated before a licence can be issued can take longer as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is often reliant on receiving information from third parties, including medical professionals, before a licence can be issued.
The DVLA is currently rolling out a new casework system which is expected to deliver significant improvements to the services provided to drivers with medical conditions. When fully implemented, this will provide improved turnaround times, increased capacity and automation, higher levels of digital functionality and digital communication. The DVLA is also planning to launch a new medical services platform which will enable more customers to transact online and will increase the use of email communication.
Applicants renewing an existing licence may be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing they can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inf1886-can-i-drive-while-my-application-is-with-dvla.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will review the £10,000 price threshold applied to electric motorcycles for the Plug-in Motorcycle Grant.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Plug-in Motorcycle Grant will continue at the same price threshold. The grant will close at the end of the 2025/26 FY or when budgets have been exhausted, whichever comes first.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will review the Plug-in Motorcycle Grant and extend it beyond April 2026.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Plug-in Motorcycle Grant will continue at the same price threshold. The grant will close at the end of the 2025/26 FY or when budgets have been exhausted, whichever comes first.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data her Department holds on the number of electric vehicles registered in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
At the end of June 2025, the number of licensed vehicles that were battery electric was 10,789 in Lincolnshire.
We do not readily hold the respective figure for South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
It is important to note, vehicles are allocated to geographic location according to the postcode of the registered keeper. The address does not necessarily reflect where the vehicle is located. This is especially true for large fleets kept by companies involved with vehicle management, leasing or rentals.