Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the amounts paid out under the Pothole Action Fund by (a) region and (b) nation of the UK in 2020-21.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Pothole Action Fund, announced in 2016¸ was for local roads in England outside London, as that has a separate funding arrangement. The other nations of the UK receive a share of any new funding through the Barnett Formula.
For 2020/21, the Pothole Action Fund (£50 million in 2020/21) was combined with the Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund (£100 million) and the new £2.5 billion Potholes Fund announced at Budget 2020 (£500 million). This £650 million funding was allocated by formula, and paid to local highway authorities in England, outside London.
The allocations were published in the Roads Funding Information Pack which is at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/roads-funding-information-pack/roads-funding-information-pack.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the amounts paid out under the Bus Service Operators Grant by (a) region and (b) nation of the UK in 200-21.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Up until 31 December 2013 Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) was paid directly to bus operators and was not split between commercially run or subsidised bus services. We are therefore unable to provide figures for this period. From 1 January 2014 local authorities have received funding equivalent to the level of BSOG which would otherwise have been paid to operators for running subsidised services in 2014. The current dataset provides details of amounts paid up to and including the period to 31/03/21. Details of the amounts paid to local authorities each year can be found on the “Payments to Local Authorities” tab of the relevant spreadsheets published at
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-services-grants-and-funding#bsog-spend
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the amounts paid out under the Transforming Cities programme by (a) region and (b) nation of the UK in 2020-21.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The total amount of Transforming Cities Fund awarded to the six original Mayoral Combined Authorities and the remaining twelve Competitively Funded Authorities, including West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Sheffield City Region Combined Authority have been published. Details about the total funded awarded to each city is available on Gov.UK.
The Transforming Cities Fund is available to selected cities within England only, not the other devolved nations. By completion of the Transforming Cities Programme, a total of £2.36 billion will have been invested in these 18 cities across England.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the amounts paid out under the Bus Service Operators Grant by (a) region and (b) nation of the UK to date.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Up until 31 December 2013 Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) was paid directly to bus operators and was not split between commercially run or subsidised bus services. We are therefore unable to provide figures for this period. From 1 January 2014 local authorities have received funding equivalent to the level of BSOG which would otherwise have been paid to operators for running subsidised services in 2014. The current dataset provides details of amounts paid up to and including the period to 31/03/21. Details of the amounts paid to local authorities each year can be found on the “Payments to Local Authorities” tab of the relevant spreadsheets published at
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-services-grants-and-funding#bsog-spend
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the amounts paid out under the Restoring Your Railway Fund by (a) region and (b) nation of the UK to date.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
We invited and received bids to the Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund from across England and Wales. The Ideas Fund provides 75% of costs, up to £50,000, to help fund transport and economic studies and create a business case. Details, including regions, of the 25 Ideas Fund schemes awarded funding to date are on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish his Department's estimate of the total covid-19-related financial support to be provided to train operating companies, by each company in receipt of that funding, from 30 September 2020 to 31 March 2021.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The cost to the public purse is highly dependent on the course of the pandemic and also how many people are using the railway and generating revenue, which is highly uncertain at this point.
Details of past payments made by the Department to individual franchised passenger rail operators under the Emergency Measures Agreements up until late June can be found on the government’s website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/payments-to-passenger-rail-operators-march-to-june-2020.
We plan to update these figures regularly and expect to publish figures up to late September in the coming weeks once the final payment adjustment processes are concluded.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish details of the performance terms and conditions applied to train operating companies in receipt of covid-19-related funding to replace lost fare income.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) decision was made in response to a very significant change in the commercial terms of Train Operating Companies (TOCs). In adapting to managing contract with TOCs under these new arrangements my department continues to keep its governance arrangements under close review, and we will communicate any changes (including any arising specifically from the ONS decision) to operators as needed.
All Emergency Measures Agreement (EMAs) have been published in redacted form on the public register of rail franchises on the gov.uk website. The Department is continuing to follow its processes in order to finalise the publication of the ERMAs. Given that a number of third party stakeholders are being consulted on proposed redactions, we cannot provide a definitive timescale for the redacted versions of the ERMAs however we continue to work towards publishing them as soon as reasonably practicable and the Department’s redactions have been completed.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made changes to the governance arrangements for train operating companies as a result of the decision made by the Office for National Statistics to re-classify such companies as being within the public sector.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) decision was made in response to a very significant change in the commercial terms of Train Operating Companies (TOCs). In adapting to managing contract with TOCs under these new arrangements my department continues to keep its governance arrangements under close review, and we will communicate any changes (including any arising specifically from the ONS decision) to operators as needed.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of financial support provided to train operating companies (a) individually and (b) in total during the period from (i) 31 March to 29 September 2020 and (ii) 30 September 2020 to date.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Approximately £4.2bn has been paid in operational support to all 14 Train Operating Companies, including the 2 in public ownership, up to the end of rail period 6 (from 1 March to 20 September).
Details of past payments made by the Department to individual franchised passenger rail operators under the Emergency Measures Agreements up until late June can be found on the government’s website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/payments-to-passenger-rail-operators-march-to-june-2020.
We plan to update these figures regularly and expect to publish figures up to 20 September in the coming weeks once the final payment adjustment processes are concluded
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to emergency funding provided to the national railways, what cumulative efficiency savings he has asked Southern Railway to achieve by the end of 2020-21.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department has contracted Govia Thameslink Railway to act as a Good and Efficient Operator, as defined in the Emergency Measures Agreement and subsequently the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement and will assess their performance against this requirement.