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 make an estimate of the number of road traffic collisions that are attributable to insomnia.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department produces statistics on personal injury road collisions based on data reported by the police using the STATS19 system. This does not record the number of collisions attributable to insomnia, but does record those where fatigue was assigned as a contributory factor.
The number of injury collisions in Great Britain where a police officer attended the scene and allocated the contributory factor ‘fatigue’ to one of the participants was 1,195 in 2021, and this was 2% of the total.
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 the impact of potholes on road users in England.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area, including the fixing of potholes. It is for each local authority to decide how best to do this and it is for local decision makers to determine how to prioritise local spending.
Well-planned maintenance to prevent potholes and other defects from forming in the first place is vital, and the Department for Transport advocates a risk-based, whole life-cycle asset management approach to all aspects of the local highway network, including the road surface.
The Department also encourages good practice in highway maintenance for all local highway authorities and endorses the UK Roads Leadership Group’s (UKRLG) ‘Well Managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice’.
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 make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of pothole injury compensation from April 2021 to April 2022.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department has made no estimate of the cost to the public purse of pothole injury compensation from April 2021 to April 2022.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland responsibility for maintaining the highway rests with the respective devolved administration.
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 he has made of the potential impact of smart motorways on (a) levels of congestion and (b) driver safety.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
National Highways produces annual smart motorways stocktake progress reports which cover the latest safety data and progress on delivering the 2020 Stocktake actions. National Highways published its Smart motorways stocktake - Second year progress report 2022 in May 2022. The latest data (2016 to 2020) shows that shows that, overall, in terms of serious or fatal casualties, smart motorways are the safest roads on the Strategic Road Network. The next annual report is due to be published in Spring 2023.
National Highways also produces Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE) reports ‘one year after’ and ‘five years after’ the opening of a road scheme covering all scheme impacts, including journey time reliability and safety. Reports are published on the National Highways website.
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 had recent discussions with Transport for London on (a) train, (b) rail and (c) bus strikes.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Transport in London is devolved and is the responsibility of the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL), this includes action to mitigate TfL strikes. However, the Secretary of State for Transport is regularly updated on impacts of industrial action on passengers of the London Underground, rail and bus services.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on advances in technology to improve on current pothole patching techniques; if he will allocate funding to development of those technologies; and what steps his Deparment is taking to tackle the prevalence of potholes in Strangford constituency.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department works closely with highways stakeholders such as the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport and the Local Council Roads Innovation Group who regularly showcase innovative ways to fix potholes and ensure we have well maintained roads. We fund innovative new ideas including road technologies through our well-established Transport Research Innovation Grant (T-TRIG) programme, and the ADEPT Live Labs programme.
Whilst roads in Northern Ireland are a devolved matter, NI is a valued member of the UK’s Road Leadership Group, which brings together the four nations of the United Kingdom so that best practice in highway maintenance can be shared across the country.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Transport Bill announced in the Queen's Speech 2022, what steps he is taking to tackle safety concerns relating to the proposed legalisation of use of e-scooters on public roads.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Safety will always be a top priority as we consider options for regulating e-scooters. The Department is drawing on the helpful work of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, Warwick Manufacturing Group and groups representing blind and visually impaired people. No final decisions have been made and the Department will consult publicly before any new arrangements come into force.
Alongside the national evaluation of the e-scooter trials, we are continuing to gather wider evidence on the safety of e-scooters, including through DfT official statistics (such as STATS19), social behavioural research, as well as by following research conducted by external bodies. The findings report from the evaluation, and underlying datasets, will be published in due course.
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 he has had with the CAA in relation to the Belfast City to London Heathrow direct Aer Lingus route.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Department for Transport officials have engaged extensively with the CAA on the exceptional arrangements adopted in the wake of EU exit. The UK Government put in place transitional arrangements to temporarily accommodate EU carriers operating domestic UK air services, such as Aer Lingus. The CAA has been working with the airline on sustainable long-term solutions for the route, I hope the airline can continue to work on these solutions and return to the route in due course. In the meantime, I’m pleased to see that connectivity within the Union has been maintained with British Airways picking up the capacity left by Aer Lingus.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what help is available to those who have (a) no money or (b) are unemployed to get a HGV Licence.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government has invested up to £34 million in skills bootcamps to train up to 11,000 more people to become HGV drivers. These are free, short, intensive courses to train new drivers to gain an HGV licence. In addition, the Large Goods Vehicle Driver apprenticeship standard to train articulated HGV drivers, which is supported with up to £7,000 of funding, and the Urban Driver apprenticeship to train rigid HGV drivers with up to £5,000 of funding are available for businesses.
Support for education and training outside England is a matter for the devolved administrations.
The Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus in England, Scotland and Wales are also supporting jobseekers become HGV drivers where appropriate. Some Jobcentre regions have created Sector-based Work Academy Programmes where the local job market requires more HGV drivers.
Employment support is a devolved matter for the Northern Ireland Executive.
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of offering half-price train and bus tickets to (a) apprentices and (b) those on a low income in the context of the rising cost of living.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We already have a number of measures in place which help passengers, including apprentices and those on a low income, save on rail fares. Many will be able to benefit from the railcards on offer which offer discounts against most rail fares.
Most recently, we launched a ticket sale, with over 1.3 million tickets being sold, offering around £7million worth of savings for passengers.
In considering any new rail fare discounts, the Government would need to carefully consider the potential benefits to passengers, costs to taxpayers and impact on the operation of the railway.