Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the potential impact on the UK economy of the Ely area capacity enhancement scheme.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Economic appraisals of the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement Scheme have been undertaken by Network Rail as part of the Outline Business Case developed for the proposal.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 30 March to Question 174319 on Taxis: CCTV, if he will list the (a) 15 authorities with a requirement for all licensed taxis to have CCTV fitted and (b) 14 authorities with a requirement for all licensed private hire vehicles to have CCTV fitted.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Information on the licensing authorities in England that require the fitting of CCTV systems in taxis and/or private hire vehicles is available at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/taxi-and-private-hire-vehicle-statistics-england-2022.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many licensing authorities have introduced mandatory CCTV in (a) taxis and (b) private hire vehicles.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
As of 31 March 2022, 15 authorities had a requirement for all licensed taxis to have CCTV fitted and 14 had a requirement for all licensed PHVs to have CCTV fitted.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many bus journeys were charged to his Department under the £2 bus fare cap in January 2023; and what the cost to the public purse of those journeys was in that month.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Each bus operator participating in the £2 bus fare cap has been given a fixed reimbursement which was calculated using recent and historic data on ticket sales. Individual journeys are not charged to the Department, but as a condition of participating in the scheme, the operator agrees to sell all eligible single tickets for £2. This means that the scheme, which lasts from 1 January to 31 March 2023, has been delivered at a fixed cost to the public purse, and within a £60m envelope.
We do not yet hold information on the number of bus journeys made under the £2 bus fare cap in Cambridgeshire, however we have an ongoing Monitoring and Evaluation process in place to review the three months of the scheme so that we will be in position to understand the full impacts it has brought on savings, patronage and bus usage. It is anticipated that this will conclude later this year.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many bus journeys were charged to his Department under the £2 bus fare cap in Cambridgeshire in January 2023.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department does not hold this information.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to publish the cost to the public purse of the £2 bus fare cap, by local transport authority, for January 2023.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The £2 bus fare cap will run from 1 January to 31 March 2023 and has a budget of £60 million. Most of the funding will be paid to commercial operators and the amount they receive is commercially sensitive. Some of the funding will be paid to Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) who either have a Demand Responsive Transport service under the Department’s Rural Mobility Fund scheme and/or who run tender services from operators who were not eligible for the commercial scheme but deliver a socially-necessary service which should also benefit from the option to join the £2 Fare Cap Scheme.
The funding for this element of the scheme is being provided on the basis of actual tickets sold via a retrospective reconciliation. DfT will publish funding received by LTAs for this scheme in due course.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings and recommendations on the transport levelling up mission in the report by the East of England APPG and EELGA entitled Levelling up in the East of England - the East of England's progress towards the Government’s twelve levelling up missions; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department for Transport (DfT) keeps the progress of the Levelling Up transport mission under regular review, in collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The Department has noted the report from the APPG and EELGA.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority received £4.3m funding from the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme for 30 double deck electric buses, which will be introduced on Park and Ride bus routes in Cambridge.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) survival rates and (b) total costs of trees planted during the upgrade to the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
a) Around 800,000 trees have been planted across the mainline scheme, with an additional 140,000 trees recently planted this season which have not been included in previous figures. National Highways has undertaken a first survey to establish survival rates and re-planted all the trees which did not survive. A further survey is underway, and a report is being produced to analyse reasons for tree failures and suggestions for replanting strategy.
b) National Highways have spent circa £2m to date.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help ensure that guide dog owners are not unlawfully refused access to taxis and minicabs.
Answered by Wendy Morton
It is unacceptable that some taxi and PHV drivers refuse assistance dogs carriage.
In December 2020, we launched a package of disability equality training to improve the transport sector’s confidence and skills in delivering inclusive journeys for disabled passengers.
The Government also remains committed to introducing mandatory disability awareness training for taxi and PHV drivers through new National Minimum Standards for licensing authorities when Parliamentary time allows.
On 28 March we published for consultation updated best practice guidance for local licensing authorities including a strong recommendation that taxi and PHV drivers are required to complete disability awareness training.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has plans to speed up the HGV driver testing process to reduce the time period between a person seeking work as a HGV driver and qualifying.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Drivers must pass all four parts of the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (DCPC) tests to be issued with their Driver Qualification Card (DQC). There are no minimum waiting periods between each module. Most drivers take Module 1 (theory and hazard perception) and module 2 (case studies) together, complete their module 3 (practical test), and then take their module 4 (practical demonstration test) which can be completed with their training school.
Once module 4 is passed, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) send data to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) overnight. The DVLA target is to dispatch these cards one day after receiving the data. There are no delays to this service or in issuing the DQC which the driver should have within a week of passing their module 4 test. A driver can begin work as soon as they have their DQC card.