Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of demand for second-hand vehicles in the last five years.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Trends in the level of demand for second-hand vehicles are not routinely monitored. The National Travel Attitudes Study, a survey conducted in 2022, showed that an estimated 67% of vehicles that households in England had access to had been bought second-hand.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on requiring roll bars for quad bikes.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
No. Research by the Health and Safety Executive on quadbikes used in the workplace is that Roll Over Protection Systems, which includes roll bars, may lead to an increased risk of injury in the event of an overturn by either preventing the operator from separating from the machine or striking the operator as the machine overturns.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his timeframe is for the DVLA to meet its service delivery standards for issuing driving licences across the UK.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s published business plan target for 2022/23 is to despatch 95% of driving licences within three working days where the application was made online and 90% within ten working days where the application was made by post.
The DVLA is responsible for driver licensing in Great Britain. Driver licensing is devolved in Northern Ireland and is the responsibility of the Driver and Vehicle Agency, part of the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the cost fuel on the level of car sales in 2022.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
While the Department does monitor electricity cost variation and the impact on electric vehicle uptake, through the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, no such recent assessment has been made by the Department of the cost of fuel and the impact on car sales.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of Heathrow Airport's decision to not introduce a travel cap for travellers during Christmas 2022 on the level of tourists entering the UK.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Heathrow airport had a successful Christmas 2022. According to CAA Airport Data, Heathrow handled just under 6 million passengers throughout the month of December 2022, approximately 89% of the number of passengers in December 2019. Decisions on passenger capacity are the responsibility of airports and so in this case is a decision for Heathrow Airport Limited.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the progress of traffic officers in achieving target times for attending stranded drivers on smart motorways.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The March 2020 Smart Motorways Stocktake committed to bringing down the average response time on All Lane Running smart motorways from 17 minutes to 10 minutes. This applies to smart motorways where the spacing between places to stop in an emergency is more than one mile.
National Highways met this target in September 2022 with an average response time of 9mins 49 sec and have continued to meet the 10 minute target for the last six months in a row.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of waiting times at Heathrow Airport on passengers; and what discussions his Department has had with the Civil Aviation Authority on the steps being taken to reduce waiting times at that airport.
Answered by Jesse Norman
It is the responsibility of industry to manage demand, recruit and roster staff. The Aviation Minister and DfT officials continue to engage with the sector, including Heathrow to gain assurances on their operational planning and performance.
For Heathrow, this includes their planning for industrial action that coincides with the Easter period. At peak periods, passengers should be prepared that airports will be busier and should follow all advice from their airline and the airport. The Aviation Passenger Charter, published last year, makes clear the rights of passengers and the responsibilities of the sector.
On 27 March the CEO of the CAA Richard Moriarty and Director General for Aviation, Maritime and Security, Rannia Leontaridi jointly wrote to CEOs across the aviation sector to set out expectations ahead of the Summer 2023 season.
Under the CAA’s economic regulation of Heathrow, the airport is required to measure its security queues against targets of 95% of queues below 5 minutes and 99% below 10 minutes. The performance can be tracked via Heathrow’s website.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will hold further discussions with rail operators and representatives to help prevent delays and cancellations to train services due to industrial action.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government welcomes the recent cancellation of strikes by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and the restart of discussions with the Rail Delivery Group on its fair and reasonable two-year pay offer. We urge RMT to allow its members to have a say, as they did for the Network Rail two-year offer.
The Government has played its part in helping to facilitate and improve communication between the Unions and the rail industry. Where necessary, I will continue to facilitate open and constructive discussions to make progress and help the parties resolve the dispute.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will provide funding to increase the number of electric vehicle charging points in rural areas.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is committed to ensuring that the deployment of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure happens across all areas of the country.
More than 189 different local authorities across the UK, including those in rural areas, have been awarded over £55 million funding through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme which will see more than 14,000 chargepoints installed across the UK.
From 1 April 2022, the Government expanded the Workplace Charging Scheme to support small accommodation businesses and charities to install chargepoints for their guests and visitors. This should help provision more chargepoints in rural areas, for example it should support places like village halls to provide chargepoints for their communities.
In England, the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund will address regional charging inequality and ensure no part of the country is left behind. The Government has developed a data-led allocation model to award the funding, which considers factors such as the level of rurality and the number of vehicles without off-street parking within the local authority.
The majority of funding programmes for charging infrastructure are available on a UK wide basis. Where public funding initiatives are planned for England only, corresponding additions are usually allocated to the devolved administrations through Barnett consequentials. It is then for those nations to decide how that funding should be spent.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will increase funding for bus services in rural areas.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The 2021 National Bus Strategy makes clear that the Government takes the needs of rural transport users just as seriously as the needs of those in urban areas. The Department regularly engages with rural local authorities, including on the Rural Mobility Fund, and will involve them in the planned reforms to the Bus Service Operator Grant (BSOG).
The Government provides around £250 million every year through the BSOG to help bus operators keep fares down and maintain a larger network than would otherwise be possible, as well as to help local authorities subsidise socially necessary bus services.
The Department has also sought to help increase patronage on buses, including in rural areas, by providing up to £135 million to help operators cap single fares at £2 on over 4,700 routes in England outside London. The cap launched on 1 January and is set to run until 30 June 2023.
We are also providing up to £80 million in additional funding to extend the Bus Recovery Grant until 30 June which takes total funding to over £2 billion since March 2020 to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on the bus sector and support local bus services, including those in rural areas. The Department is actively working on plans for June onwards and will make further announcements on this in due course. The needs of rural authorities have been given particular consideration as part of this ongoing work.