Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with British Airways on reducing the number of cancelled flights.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The resilience of the UK aviation sector is key to its success. As UK aviation operates predominately in the private sector, it is the responsibility of industry to ensure appropriate contingency plans are in place to minimise potential disruption and cancellations.
My officials regularly engage with the aviation sector to discuss strategies in place to minimise disruption and cancellations and ensure resilience exists across the network to deliver for their customers. This involves regular communication with airlines, including British Airways, airports, ground handling agents and industry bodies.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve road safety outside schools.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The safety of our roads is an absolute priority for this Government.
Local authorities have a range of traffic management measures available to them to help improve safety outside schools including reducing speed limits, traffic calming, and introduction of a School Street where appropriate. On 19 November 2024 Active Travel England and the Department for Transport published joint School Streets Guidance. The guidance is available at School Streets: how to set up and manage a scheme - GOV.UK
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve (a) road resurfacing and (b) other infrastructure completion times.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This year, the Government made an additional £500 million available for local highway authorities to maintain their highway network, bringing the total to a record investment of nearly £1.6 billion. A quarter of the additional funding is contingent upon local highway authorities complying with certain criteria aimed at driving best practice and continual improvement in highways maintenance.
The Government also supports the rollout of lane rental schemes. This allows highway authorities to charge up to £2,500 per day for works on the busiest roads at peak times. This encourages quicker completion, off-peak working, or relocating works to reduce disruption on our roads. From January 2026, authorities will be able to use 50% of lane rental revenue for highway maintenance.
Highway authorities can issue overrun charges of up to £10,000 per day for works that exceed agreed timeframes. Currently these charges can only be applied on weekdays, however we are making changes to allow these charges to apply on weekends and bank holidays.
Finally, the Government has set out a new approach to infrastructure in the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, which was published in June 2025. This will restore confidence and drive economic growth by providing stability and certainty, and improve how infrastructure projects, like transport, are planned and delivered. We are working closely with HMT to ensure lessons learned from transport projects, such as set out in the James Stewart Review (published in June 2025) are incorporated into future priorities. The Department has accepted all recommendations from this Review and is already taking steps to implement them.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with her counterparts in Northern Ireland on electric vehicle charging provision.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My officials regularly engage with the Department for Infrastructure on zero emission vehicle (ZEV) initiatives, including charging infrastructure provision. Minister Lightwood met the Northern Ireland Minister for Infrastructure in April during the British-Irish Council meeting, and I met with the Northern Ireland Minister for Infrastructure earlier this month as part of the Interministerial Group for Transport. Both including discussions on the ZEV transition.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with local councils on ensuring that there are sufficient road grit boxes for road users to use in winter 2025-26.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Responsibility for winter road maintenance, including grit boxes, is a devolved matter. As such this answer relates only to England.
Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 places a duty on highway authorities to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice.
It is for local highway authorities to determine what the most appropriate measures are to achieve this, based on local circumstances.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the risk of (a) harm and (b) disruption from unauthorised drone activity to (i) UK commercial airports and (ii) commercial air traffic operating in UK airspace.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
UK aviation operates in the private sector. It is therefore the responsibility of industry to ensure there are appropriate contingency plans in place to minimise potential disruption.
The Department for Transport, Home Office and Ministry of Defence engage regularly with the aviation sector to gain assurances of their security plans, including in response to drone incursions at UK airports.
The Department for Transport is going further by mandating the use of Remote Identification (RID) for drones allowing them to be tracked and identified. RID will protect the airspace, its users and the public from unlawful and unsafe drones operating without adequate permissions, including around UK airports.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has had discussions on disruption by drones at airports with (a) pilots, (b) other aviation professionals (c) the Ministry of Defence and (d) governments of other European countries that have experienced such disruption; and what steps her Department plans to take to counter such risks to commercial aviation.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
UK aviation operates in the private sector. It is therefore the responsibility of industry to ensure there are appropriate contingency plans in place to minimise potential disruption.
The Department for Transport, Home Office and Ministry of Defence engage regularly with the aviation sector to gain assurances of their security plans, including in response to drone incursions at UK airports.
The Department for Transport is going further by mandating the use of Remote Identification (RID) for drones allowing them to be tracked and identified. RID will protect the airspace, its users and the public from unlawful and unsafe drones operating without adequate permissions, including around UK airports.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with Transport for London on improving safety on the London Underground.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Ministers and officials have regular conversations with Transport for London (TfL) on a variety of issues. However transport in London is devolved to the Mayor, and TfL is responsible for safety on the London Underground.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the proportion of UK cars powered solely by electric.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In the 12 months ending June 2025, 4.4% of all licensed cars in the UK were zero emission battery electric cars, equivalent to 1.5 million cars.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made a recent assessment of trends in levels of fatigue among pilots flying in UK airspace.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are stringent regulations in place to prevent pilot fatigue. The risk of flight crew fatigue is managed under the flight time limitation regulations which limit the number of hours pilots can be on duty. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), as the UK’s independent aviation safety regulator, monitors and oversees UK Airlines’ management of flight time limitation requirements and how these impact pilot fatigue.