Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the UK's capacity to manufacture E10 unleaded petrol; and how this has changed since July 2024.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
E10 (petrol containing up to 10% bioethanol) was introduced as the standard petrol grade in September 2021. To manufacture E10, fossil petrol is blended with ethanol either at refineries or downstream in the supply network. Accordingly the UK’s capacity to manufacture and supply E10 is impacted by the availability of bioethanol.
On 15 August 2025 Vivergo announced the closure of its UK bioethanol production plant in Hull, which at full capacity could produce 420 million litres of bioethanol per year from wheat for blending with petrol.
Whilst the UK retains bioethanol production capacity elsewhere, the closure of Vivergo represents a significant loss. However, it is not considered likely to impact the manufacture or supply of E10 petrol in the UK. It is expected that the supply of bioethanol for petrol suppliers will continue to be met by both bioethanol produced at the remaining UK plants and by imports.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is any evidence that the fare cap has affected bus operations leading to accidents.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department does not hold any data which suggests that the national bus fare cap has led to accidents.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have conducted any research into whether bus contracts prioritising speed lead to increased accidents or injury.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Road safety is a priority for the government, and we expect bus operators to uphold the highest standards of safety, policed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, and upheld judicially by the Traffic Commissioners. The Department for Transport’s guidance to local transport authorities on developing their Bus Service Improvement Plans makes clear that these should include plans setting out how LTAs and local bus operators will work together to ensure that bus services are safe and perceived to be safe by all. That same philosophy applies also to franchising and contracting by local transport authorities and to their operators.
The Department for Transport maintains a database of road injury collisions and casualties, including those involving buses or coaches, based on data reported by police using a system known as STATS19. Statistics on the number of people killed and injured in bus or coach collisions are published annually on GOV.UK.
The latest figures can be found in published Table RAS0601 and show that in 2023, the latest year for which figures are available, 59 people were killed and 4,286 injured in collisions involving buses or coaches. The number of casualties which were hospitalised is not recorded within the STATS19 dataset.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of people hospitalised each day as a result of bus accidents.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Road safety is a priority for the government, and we expect bus operators to uphold the highest standards of safety, policed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, and upheld judicially by the Traffic Commissioners. The Department for Transport’s guidance to local transport authorities on developing their Bus Service Improvement Plans makes clear that these should include plans setting out how LTAs and local bus operators will work together to ensure that bus services are safe and perceived to be safe by all. That same philosophy applies also to franchising and contracting by local transport authorities and to their operators.
The Department for Transport maintains a database of road injury collisions and casualties, including those involving buses or coaches, based on data reported by police using a system known as STATS19. Statistics on the number of people killed and injured in bus or coach collisions are published annually on GOV.UK.
The latest figures can be found in published Table RAS0601 and show that in 2023, the latest year for which figures are available, 59 people were killed and 4,286 injured in collisions involving buses or coaches. The number of casualties which were hospitalised is not recorded within the STATS19 dataset.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the incidence of bus accidents leading to death or injury.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Road safety is a priority for the government, and we expect bus operators to uphold the highest standards of safety, policed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, and upheld judicially by the Traffic Commissioners. The Department for Transport’s guidance to local transport authorities on developing their Bus Service Improvement Plans makes clear that these should include plans setting out how LTAs and local bus operators will work together to ensure that bus services are safe and perceived to be safe by all. That same philosophy applies also to franchising and contracting by local transport authorities and to their operators.
The Department for Transport maintains a database of road injury collisions and casualties, including those involving buses or coaches, based on data reported by police using a system known as STATS19. Statistics on the number of people killed and injured in bus or coach collisions are published annually on GOV.UK.
The latest figures can be found in published Table RAS0601 and show that in 2023, the latest year for which figures are available, 59 people were killed and 4,286 injured in collisions involving buses or coaches. The number of casualties which were hospitalised is not recorded within the STATS19 dataset.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they hold a national database of people killed or injured in bus accidents.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Road safety is a priority for the government, and we expect bus operators to uphold the highest standards of safety, policed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, and upheld judicially by the Traffic Commissioners. The Department for Transport’s guidance to local transport authorities on developing their Bus Service Improvement Plans makes clear that these should include plans setting out how LTAs and local bus operators will work together to ensure that bus services are safe and perceived to be safe by all. That same philosophy applies also to franchising and contracting by local transport authorities and to their operators.
The Department for Transport maintains a database of road injury collisions and casualties, including those involving buses or coaches, based on data reported by police using a system known as STATS19. Statistics on the number of people killed and injured in bus or coach collisions are published annually on GOV.UK.
The latest figures can be found in published Table RAS0601 and show that in 2023, the latest year for which figures are available, 59 people were killed and 4,286 injured in collisions involving buses or coaches. The number of casualties which were hospitalised is not recorded within the STATS19 dataset.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of protective earthed neutral faults in public and street chargers for electric vehicles.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
Safety requirements relating to protective earthed neutral faults, including those for electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints, are covered by The Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002, BS 7671 Requirements for Electrical Installations, the Institution of Engineering and Technology's code of practice for EV Charging Equipment, and the Energy Networks Association’s Engineering Recommendation G12. The Government has not undertaken any separate risk assessment of protective earthed neutral faults in EV chargepoints.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what limitations they have identified with respect to meeting the dates planned for banning the sale of new petrol and diesel internal combustion motor cars.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government has set out ambitious targets for the transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) and has identified three key areas which we are supporting to make that ambition a reality:
With more than one million plug-in vehicles on UK roads and industry figures showing that one in five new cars sold in 2022 had a plug, we are on track for mass adoption of zero emission vehicles over the next decade.