Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's Inclusive Transport Strategy, published in July 2018, what steps he is taking to ensure that public spaces are more accessible for people with a vision impairment.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Local authorities are responsible for managing their roads, including making public space accessible. The Department provides good practice guidance in 'Inclusive Mobility' on access to pedestrian and transport infrastructure. Section 3 relates to access to footways, footpaths and pedestrian areas. ‘Inclusive Mobility’ is available at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-mobility
The Department is in the process of updating ‘Inclusive Mobility’, and has research underway to inform this. The research is due to conclude by the end of this year, and the updates to the guidance will follow at a later date. Research into inclusive street design, a collaborative project with the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland, is also underway. We await the results of this research next year with updates to guidance to follow at a later date.
The control of advertising, including the use of A-boards in public spaces, is a matter for my colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to encourage the growth of new rail technologies, including hydrogen-powered trains.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department for Transport provides total funding of £70.6m per year which is dedicated to research, development and innovation in the rail industry, as well as additional investment in targeted major modernisation projects such as smart ticketing and digital signalling. Funding for general research and innovation includes projects to support the development of hydrogen-powered trains, with projects researching how they will be approved for entering service, as well as enabling the first mainline testing of a hydrogen train.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) funds, with industry, a network of university-based centres of excellence for rail research and innovation, as well as committing £11m to a dedicated centre at the University of Leeds. BEIS also offers Industrial Strategy challenge funds for which the rail industry can bid; and has recently announced £40m to explore how the use of hydrogen can be rolled out across the UK, and £100m to enable greater supply of low carbon hydrogen for use across the economy. These funding opportunities will be important to enable hydrogen-powered trains to run on the network in the future.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to publish guidance on disability equality training for bus drivers.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government remains committed to publishing best practice guidance on the provision of high quality disability awareness training for bus and coach drivers, to support operators to ensure that every driver has the knowledge and skills to assist disabled passengers.
We will publish the guidance later in the year and will work with the bus and coach industry to encourage its adoption.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to promote innovation in the North West rail cluster.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The DfT is committed to promoting innovation through its rail franchise programme and is trialling a three-year pilot fund within the TransPennine Express (TPE) and the Arriva Rail North (Northern) franchises. This is aimed at supporting the development of innovations, focussing on decarbonisation, passenger improvements and capacity and must benefit wider railway and society.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what transport infrastructure the Government is supporting to help the manufacturing industry grow.
Answered by Michael Ellis
As set out in the Industrial Strategy, transport infrastructure investment is vital to support businesses right across the country, including in manufacturing. We support businesses through our roads, rail and local transport investment, and delivery of major projects like HS2. For example, HS2 already supports 9,000 jobs, and its innovative approach to construction includes looking at opportunities for off-site manufacture, such as Temporary Modular Bridges.
DfT also supports manufacturing through its procurement, and has adopted the Procuring for Growth Balanced Scorecard to help ensure major government procurements have a positive impact on economic growth, as well as best value for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding the Government is allocating towards meeting its targets for walking and cycling.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS), published in April 2017, identified £1.2 billion of funding available for cycling and walking projects over the period 2016-21. Since then, additional funding streams have been made available, including the Transforming Cities Fund, Clean Air Fund, Future High Streets Fund and Housing Infrastructure Fund. As a result, almost £2bn of funding is now projected to be invested in cycling and walking projects between 2016/17 to 2020/21 from a range of funding programmes across Government.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to introduce mandatory disability equality training for (a) minicab and (b) taxi drivers.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
I know that disability awareness training can provide taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to give disabled passengers the assistance they need, and am clear that licensing authorities should use their existing powers to require drivers to complete it.
On 12th February the Government published its response to the report of the Chair of the Task and Finish Group on Taxis and PHV licensing, indicating its intention to introduce mandatory disability awareness training as part of National Minimum Standards when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department makes available discretionary funding for the extension of operational hours of bus services in isolated and deprived communities.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Local authorities have the power to subsidise bus services in isolated and deprived communities. This can include subsiding a service so that its hours of operation are extended. The majority of public funding for local bus services is provided via block grant to local authorities in England from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Department for Transport provides £250 million annually through the Bus Service Operators Grant to support bus services and supports local authority spending of £1 billion a year for free bus travel for older and disabled people.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether priority funding has been awarded under the Access for All scheme to (a) Rock Ferry and (b) Birkenhead Park stations.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
We have received more than 300 nominations for the next tranche of Access for All funding, totaling £300m. 10 of those nominations are from the Merseytravel area. The assessment of these nominations is now complete and we will be announcing the successful stations early in April.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which service providers are contracted to carry out third party cleaning contracts for his (a) Department and (b) executive agencies; if he will list all of the services delivered by third party contractors to his (i) Department and (ii) executive agencies; and how many people working for those third party contractors are paid less than the Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Third party cleaning contracts are undertaken by Interserve FM for the central Department for Transport (DfT(C)), Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA), Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA). The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) third party cleaning contract is undertaken by Sodexo Ltd as part of a Private Finance Initiative Agreement with Telereal Trillium.
The central Department for Transport, MCA, DVSA, VCA and DVLA all utilise fully encompassing Total Facilities Management contracts which can provide the following services: -
Cleaning;
Catering;
Security;
Reception;
Grounds Maintenance;
Planned Maintenance;
Reactive Maintenance;
Porterage;
Reprographics and
Post Room.
Neither the central Department nor its executive agencies hold information on the earnings of outsourced workers. However, the Department for Transport Total Facilities Management contract with Interserve FM requires all staff employed by the service provider to be paid at least the National Living Wage. DVLA believe, following contact with Telereal Trillium, that no staff working on their contract receive below the National Living Wage.