Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to increase the number of publicly available electric vehicle charging devices in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
While transport is largely devolved to the Department for Infrastructure, the Department is supporting Northern Ireland’s transition to zero emission vehicles. Through Round 1 of the Levelling Up Fund, we are providing up to £3.27 million to upgrade and expand the EV charging network. Previously, two grants totalling £1.38 million were awarded under the On Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.
Asked by: Lord Harper (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to paragraph 5.86 of the Spending Review 2025, published on 11 June, what are the £663 million of technical efficiencies by category for each of the financial years until 2029–30.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Alongside the Spending Review 2025 publication, Departmental Efficiency Delivery Plans were published on GOV.UK. The Department for Transport section at paragraphs 2.83 - 2.92 provides further information on these efficiencies and table 2.10 (copied below) shows the breakdown for how the department will deliver £663million of technical efficiencies by 2028/29.
Table 2.10: Net efficiency gains vs 2025-26 planned RDEL excluding depreciation | ||||
£ million |
| 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
Corporate initiatives | 52 | 144 | 199 | |
Regulated settlements | 256 | 331 | 424 | |
Reform of executive agencies | 6 | 16 | 39 | |
Total efficiencies net of investment | 313 | 491 | 663 | |
Total efficiencies net of investment (%) | 3.8% | 5.9% | 8.0% | |
Memo: total gross efficiencies | 320 | 500 | 676 | |
Memo: total gross efficiencies (% | 3.9% | 6.0% | 8.2% | |
Asked by: Lord Snape (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 14 July 2025 (HL Deb cols 1678–1681), whether they will publish for each of the road schemes for which funding was confirmed (1) the benefit-cost ration, (2) the latest cost estimate with the date of that cost estimate, and (3) the appraisal made under the Department for Transport’s capital spend review announced in July 2024.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
(1) Detailed information on Strategic Road Network (SRN) schemes is available in the applications for planning consent, available on the Planning Inspectorate’s website. Benefit-cost ratio information for Major Road Network/Large Local Majors (MRN/LLM) schemes is part of the business case evidence and analysis which is provided by Local Authorities. This information is therefore available directly from them, once a scheme is approved at the Full Business Case (FBC) stage.
(2) Scheme costs for the SRN schemes will be confirmed as part of the setting of the third Road Investment Strategy, planned to be published by the end of March 2026. For MRN/LLM schemes, individual financial details cannot be provided ahead of assessing the Full Business Case, as doing so would jeopardise procurement exercises and contract negotiations.
(3) The Capital Review provided strategic advice to the Secretary of State. It did not appraise any specific projects, programmes or portfolios.
Asked by: Lord Snape (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the benefit-cost ratio of the railway investment schemes for which funding has not been confirmed including (1) the York Area Capacity and Performance, (2) South West Rail Resilience Programme phase 5, (3) Midland Mainline Electrification phase 3, and (4) Peckham Rye Station Congestion.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Benefit Cost Ratios (BCRs) within the economic case are only one element of decision-making on schemes and should be considered alongside the other cases in the five case business model used in Government (strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management cases). BCRs evolve as a project is developed through different levels of maturity as well as with changing scope, costs and benefits profiles. Definitive BCRs are not available for these schemes as they are either at an early stage of development or for which existing analysis is not up to date and therefore not representative of current scheme assumptions.
Asked by: Lord Snape (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish a clear transition plan for the transfer of retail responsibilities from train operating company retail websites to Great British Railways; and whether they will also publish a timetable for formal market consultation and tendering for the Great British Railways online rail ticket retailing.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Once Great British Railways (GBR) is established, it will retail online by consolidating individual train operators’ ticket websites. This will take place alongside a thriving private sector retail market, which will continue to play a key role in driving innovation and investment and encouraging more people to choose rail.
The Railways Bill consultation took place in the Spring. As part of this process, the Government consulted closely with the industry, the private sector, and wider stakeholders, including in relation to the future of the rail retail market. A formal update will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Lord Snape (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there will be an interim digital rail retail solution available before train operating company retail websites are turned off and before the Great British Railways online rail ticket retailing goes live.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Once Great British Railways (GBR) is established, it will retail online by consolidating individual train operators’ ticket websites. This will take place alongside a thriving private sector retail market, which will continue to play a key role in driving innovation and investment and encouraging more people to choose rail.
The Railways Bill consultation took place in the Spring. As part of this process, the Government consulted closely with the industry, the private sector, and wider stakeholders, including in relation to the future of the rail retail market. A formal update will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the decision of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16, whether the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency will require driving licences to list only an individual's biological sex.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Driving licences do not currently specify the sex or gender of the licence holder and there are no plans to change this.
Asked by: Lord Harper (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the increase in sales of zero-emission cars that will result from the Electric Car Grant in each of the five years from 2025.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department estimates that tens of thousands of vehicles will be supported by the Electric Car Grant. The exact number of vehicles supported by the grant will depend on consumer uptake and the number of cars eligible for the grant.
The grant design will remain under review throughout its operation to ensure maximum value for money, and the scheme will be subject to amendment or early closure with no notice should funds become exhausted.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support local authorities to establish access panels for disabled people to contribute to transport policy making, following the model used in Scotland.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Sustrans Transforming Mobility Report highlights how paid access panels could be one means by which local transport authorities engage with disabled people to shape, review, and monitor transport policies and projects, so that accessibility is embedded from the start of projects.
This recommendation is aimed at local leaders, who know their communities and are best placed to make decisions about how they can improve local transport for disabled people. Improving accessibility is a collaborative effort, with operators, industry, and local authorities having key parts to play – alongside the support of all passengers. Breaking down barriers to opportunity is a core mission statement for this government and that is why we are developing an Integrated National Transport Strategy to enable us to better work with partners across the transport sector to deliver a network that works for all passengers.
More widely, the government is committed to improving public transport services, so they are more inclusive and enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity. The Bus Services (No.2) Bill, introduced by the government on 17 December is intended to ensure networks meet the needs of the communities who rely on them and includes measures which will make bus travel more accessible and inclusive. In addition, on 1 October 2024, the first phase of the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 came into force, meaning that newer vehicles providing local services must provide audible and visible information on stops, destinations and diversions. The majority of services will need to comply by October 2026.
Ensuring the rail network is accessible is at the heart of our passenger-focused approach to improving rail services. We are committed to improving the experience for disabled passengers and have committed to publishing an accessibility roadmap to explain the actions we are taking to improve accessibility ahead of the establishment of Great British Rail.
Asked by: Lord Harper (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what environmental criteria must be met to qualify for (1) the £3,750 and (2) the £1,500 Electric Car Grant; and how these criteria will be assessed and by whom.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
To access the grant, manufacturers must hold a validated science-based target, which means they are committed to sustainable practices. These are assessed by the independent Science Based Target Initiative.
If a manufacturer holds a science-based target, whether and how much grant funding a vehicle could receive is based on the carbon emissions from the generation of energy used to assemble the vehicle and produce its battery. These criteria are assessed by the Department for Transport.