Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is planning to take to reduce dependency on private cars.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Accelerating the shift to public and active transport was one of the six strategic priorities identified for the development of the Transport Decarbonisation Plan. The Plan is due for publication in Spring 2021 and will set out a holistic and cross-modal approach to decarbonising the entire transport system.
Last year, the Prime Minister also launched ambitious plans to boost cycling and walking in England, so that half of all journeys in towns and cities are cycled or walked by 2030. This includes a £2 billion package of funding for active travel over the next 5 years. Additionally, in England, our long-term National Bus Strategy, to be published in the coming months, will provide the right, accessible services for people and communities in ways that meet their needs and provide positive encouragement to use the bus instead of the car.
Transport policy in Wales is a devolved matter and the responsibility of the Welsh Government.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is planning to take to reduce ownership of sports utility vehicles in urban areas.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Decarbonising transport, including sports utility vehicles, is a key priority for the Government’s forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan. It will set out how we are taking decisive action to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and also investing £5 billion to increase the share of journeys taken by public transport, cycling and walking. A green paper on the UK’s post-EU CO2 emissions regulations on new vehicles and the first-ever National Bus Strategy will be published shortly.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of offering free driving theory tests to individuals who have been prevented from take a driving test due to covid-19 restrictions, and whose driving theory certificate is no longer valid.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
A candidate whose theory test certificate expires will have received the service for which they paid the fee.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) pays its contractor, Pearson, per theory test delivered. If candidates were exempted from having to pay for a retake, then the DVSA and in turn the taxpayer would incur these costs. In addition, applications for a re-test would need to be validated and systems amended to remove the requirement for payment in these cases. The DVSA’s focus should rightly be on developing solutions to address the backlog of practical driving tests that has arisen as a result of the pandemic.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much capital spending on transport took place in 2019 by population share in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland, (c) Northern Ireland and (d) England.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
HM Treasury publish an annual ‘Country and Regional Analysis’, which presents statistical estimates for the allocation of identifiable expenditure between the UK’s countries and regions. For 2018-2019 the analysis shows that transport spend per capita in 2018-2019 was £474 in England, £642 in Scotland, £395 in Wales and £354 in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric cars have been purchased in each NUTS region in 2020.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Data for vehicle purchases are not available. However, the following table shows the number of battery electric cars registered for the first time in the UK, by NUTS 1 region, during the first 6 months of 2020.
Data covering all of 2020 are scheduled to be published in April 2021.
NUTS 1 Code | NUTS 1 Region | New registrations of battery electric cars |
UK | United Kingdom* | 31,047 |
UKC | North East | 427 |
UKD | North West | 1,250 |
UKE | Yorkshire and The Humber | 3,617 |
UKF | East Midlands | 1,318 |
UKG | West Midlands | 3,983 |
UKH | East of England | 2,901 |
UKI | London | 2,398 |
UKJ | South East | 7,165 |
UKK | South West | 5,041 |
UKL | Wales | 946 |
UKM | Scotland | 1,658 |
UKN | Northern Ireland | 339 |
* The UK total includes 4 new registrations that could not be assigned a region due to an incomplete or invalid postcode.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Welsh Government has legislative competence to regulate on the (a) use and (b) ownership of jet skis.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Regulations on the use and ownership of jet skis and other personal water craft is a reserved matter for the UK Parliament. This is because they are within the scope of shipping, technical and safety standards of vessels that are not ships for the purposes of the Government of Wales Act 2006.
Although the vast majority of personal watercraft users operate their craft responsibly, the Department for Transport are currently considering how to ensure that any who willfully or neglectfully cause accidents or endanger the safety of others can be prosecuted.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will publish guidance for driving instructors on when the suspension of driving tests due to the covid-19 outbreak will be lifted.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is working closely with the Department for Transport to prepare for a safe return to driver testing. It will announce details of resumption in due course.
Before practical driving tests are reintroduced, the DVSA will inform the driver training industry, which will help candidates to prepare and reach the standard of driving needed to pass their test.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2020 to Question 20599, what steps he is taking to promote the adoption of hydrogen in the haulage industry.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Hydrogen fuel cell technology could play a role in supporting the transition to zero emissions transport, as long as it is produced in a sustainable way. The £23 million Hydrogen for Transport programme will support the rollout of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, which is expected to help reduce barriers to the deployment of hydrogen heavy duty vehicles.
The Government is also supporting the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s Decarbonising Transport Networks+, which are removing barriers to low carbon transport. This includes a hydrogen trial and a decarbonisation of freight trial. Furthermore, the £20 million government Low Emission Freight and Logistics Trial, which concludes this year, includes lorries running on hydrogen dual-fuel.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the feasibility of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a fuel source for light commercial vehicles.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
In July 2018 the Department for Transport published the Transport Energy Model1. This was developed to provide an objective assessment of the relative environmental performance of the powertrain technologies and fuel choices for different vehicle types.
This assessment concluded compressed natural gas (CNG) vans are estimated to reduce CO2 tailpipe emissions by between 6-9% compared to diesel and between 22-25% for equivalent petrol models. Tailpipe emissions of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) are estimated to be approximately equivalent to petrol models.