Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to assess plans for the simplification of fares on LNER routes; and how they intend to assess the views of the public on these proposals.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We will evaluate the pilot to consider impacts on passengers and will carefully consider before taking any further decisions.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to providing a standing charge relief for electric vehicle (EV) charge point operators connecting in rural areas; and what other incentives they are considering to improve the network of EV charge points, particularly in rural areas.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The setting of standing charges associated with tariffs is a commercial matter for suppliers, and suppliers have the flexibility in how they structure their tariffs. Ofgem regulates standing charges, as they do with other elements of billing. The Government is pleased that Ofgem is considering the issue of standing charges through their recent Call for Input and industry led working groups. Solutions would be implemented across electric vehicle (EV) charging sites, including those situated in rural areas.
Our £381 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to address regional charging inequality and transform the availability of EV charging for drivers. The data-led allocation model to award funding considers the level of rurality with local authorities in rural areas allocated additional funding compared to urban ones.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact of the cancellation of further stages of HS2; and whether they intend to undertake a formal reassessment of the new infrastructure required to improve rail services in the north of England, north Wales and Scotland, and on what timescale.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Transport is an essential part of our mission to rebuild Britain and this Government is committed to delivering infrastructure that works for the whole country. We need a long-term approach to infrastructure and investment taking account of local transport priorities, which is what we will provide. We will thoroughly review the position we have inherited before setting out more detailed plans in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are their estimates for each of the past five years of the amount of money lost to rail companies by ticket fraud and evasion; and what measures they plan to implement to reduce this.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The Government takes the issue of fare evasion and fraud very seriously. We currently do not hold estimates for the amount of money lost to railway fraud, however in 2023 the Rail Delivery Group estimated that in a normal year, approximately £240 million is lost through fare evasion on Great Britain's railways.
To reduce fare evasion, in January 2023 we increased the value of the penalty fare to £100, plus the price of the single fare to the intended destination. DfT operators are also contractually incentivised to reduce ticketless travel on their network.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their consultation Smarter regulation: proposed changes to legislation for electrically assisted pedal cycles, which ran from 29 February to 25 April, what discussions they had with representatives of the fire and police services and organisations representing cyclists, pedestrians and UK cycle manufacturers either prior to launching that consultation or during it.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The Department for Transport engaged with various stakeholder organisations before and during the consultative process. The Department is currently considering the responses to the consultation and a further announcement will be made in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what meetings they have had with representatives of delivery companies in the past six months; and what topics were discussed for their consultation Smarter regulation: proposed changes to legislation for electrically assisted pedal cycles, which ran from 29 February to 25 April.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
Whilst a number of delivery companies have responded to the consultation, none have met with ministers to discuss it in the period specified.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that the safety equipment installed on smart motorways has a high failure rate.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
Smart motorways operate using a range of safety systems and are designed not to be reliant on one single piece of roadside technology for safe operation.
National Highways has worked hard to deliver a significant improvement in the performance of stopped vehicle detection (SVD), with all schemes now meeting performance requirements.
In their annual safety report published in December 2023, the ORR confirmed that SVD technology is now meeting performance requirements for detection rate, detection time, and false detection. The ORR will continue to monitor SVD performance closely.
Further, National Highways is investing more than £300m to maintain roadside technology and improve its performance during Road Period 2 (2020-2025). This includes £105m targeted at improving its systems and technology on All Lane Running (ALR) sections of smart motorway. Roadside technology on ALR smart motorways is given high priority.
National Highways has well-rehearsed contingency plans for both planned and unplanned outages. These include lowering speed limits, increasing patrols by its traffic officers, enhanced monitoring of CCTV, and using pre-positioned vehicle recovery to speed up attendance and clearance of stranded vehicles.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of fuel and energy consumption data to ensure that CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values remain representative of real-world emissions over time for manufacturers of new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles, as required by EU Regulation 2019/631.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The Department is considering how to collect real-world CO2 emissions data, including consulting on whether such data should be captured through the MOT, and will continue to engage with interested parties as the methodology is finalised. The data collection methodology must be finalised before the first annual report can be produced.
The Department will assess real-world representativeness of CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values, once the methodology for collecting real-world data has been agreed with industry and subsequently introduced into law.
The Department is considering how fuel and energy consumption data could inform amendments to type approval testing procedures and certificates for petrol and diesel cars and light commercial vehicles. Specifically on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the Department intends to update the calculation procedure for their carbon dioxide emissions to respond to the widely recognised gap in their real-world emissions performance compared to official approval values. This will be consulted on in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their first annual report on how the real-world emissions gap will be addressed for the period 2021 to 2026, as required by EU Regulation 2019/631 on setting performance standards for new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The Department is considering how to collect real-world CO2 emissions data, including consulting on whether such data should be captured through the MOT, and will continue to engage with interested parties as the methodology is finalised. The data collection methodology must be finalised before the first annual report can be produced.
The Department will assess real-world representativeness of CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values, once the methodology for collecting real-world data has been agreed with industry and subsequently introduced into law.
The Department is considering how fuel and energy consumption data could inform amendments to type approval testing procedures and certificates for petrol and diesel cars and light commercial vehicles. Specifically on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the Department intends to update the calculation procedure for their carbon dioxide emissions to respond to the widely recognised gap in their real-world emissions performance compared to official approval values. This will be consulted on in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the real-world representativeness of the CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values of new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles, as required by the Article 12(1) of EU Regulation 2019/631.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The Department is considering how to collect real-world CO2 emissions data, including consulting on whether such data should be captured through the MOT, and will continue to engage with interested parties as the methodology is finalised. The data collection methodology must be finalised before the first annual report can be produced.
The Department will assess real-world representativeness of CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values, once the methodology for collecting real-world data has been agreed with industry and subsequently introduced into law.
The Department is considering how fuel and energy consumption data could inform amendments to type approval testing procedures and certificates for petrol and diesel cars and light commercial vehicles. Specifically on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the Department intends to update the calculation procedure for their carbon dioxide emissions to respond to the widely recognised gap in their real-world emissions performance compared to official approval values. This will be consulted on in due course.