Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether National Highways has made an assessment of the adequacy of provision for walking and cycling on the strategic road network.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
National Highways (NH) has not undertaken such an assessment.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has provided for vehicle scrappage schemes in Clean Air Zones in each of the last five years; and if he will provide a breakdown by location of those zones.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Birmingham is the only NO2 Programme local authority that has implemented a scrappage scheme, which opened in 2021 with £10m of funding.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to announce the allocation of funding for the next round of Access for All bids.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department is currently assessing over 300 stations nominated for Access for All funding beyond 2024. I hope to be in a position to announce successful projects later this year.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the written statement of 9 March 2023 entitled Transport Update, HCWS625, whether the funding available for the second statutory cycling and walking investment strategy has been varied.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2), published in July 2022, included an estimate of the total financial resources across government that would be invested in active travel over the 4-year period between April 2021 and March 2025. This estimate will be updated in the next Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy and associated report to Parliament to take account of developments across various funding streams, including the change to the dedicated capital funding budgets for active travel for 2023/24 and 2024/25 announced on 9 March 2023.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons local authorities are unable to receive a multi-year funding settlement for Active Travel Fund 4; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport is currently undertaking a post-Autumn Statement business planning process to determine future budgets for the 2023/24 financial year and onwards. Active Travel Fund 4 was therefore launched as a one-year fund for 2022/23 to ensure that Local Authorities are not delayed in delivering active travel infrastructure. The Department will explore options for a multi-year funding round once future active travel budgets are decided.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much of the £2 billion of funding allocated for active travel has been spent as of 17 February 2023.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government expects to invest over £850 million in active travel between 2020-21 and 2022-23 – a record amount of funding. This includes the £200m of capital funding available for local authorities announced on the 6th February. This funding is in addition to other sources of funding such as the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS).
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to help increase the availability of practical driving tests in London.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is working hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as possible at all test centres, including in London. The latest driving examiner recruitment campaign has resulted in 13 new driving examiners in London, and the current campaign aims to bring in even more examiners to the London area.
In January, the average waiting time for a car practical driving test in the London Borough of Hounslow was 12.6 weeks, compared with the national average of 14.2 weeks.
The January average waiting time for a car practical driving test in the London and the South East area was 16 weeks.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time was for a practical driving test in (a) London and (b) the London Borough of Hounslow in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is working hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as possible at all test centres, including in London. The latest driving examiner recruitment campaign has resulted in 13 new driving examiners in London, and the current campaign aims to bring in even more examiners to the London area.
In January, the average waiting time for a car practical driving test in the London Borough of Hounslow was 12.6 weeks, compared with the national average of 14.2 weeks.
The January average waiting time for a car practical driving test in the London and the South East area was 16 weeks.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to support British (a) inventors and (b) manufacturers with tackling roadside air pollution generated by motor vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government aims to position the UK as the best place in the world to develop, manufacture and use zero exhaust emissions vehicles and ensure that the cleanest conventional vehicles are driven on our roads.
Innovation and a strong R&D ecosystem is key to this. Government is delivering:
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure local highway authorities are tackling roadside air pollution generated by motor vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government published its plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in 2017. This has been underpinned with £883m of dedicated funding to help local authorities develop and implement local NO2 air quality plans and support those affected by these plans. This sits alongside significant investment to support the transition to cleaner, more sustainable transport, including funding to kickstart a cycling and walking revolution and £320 million invested so far to support zero emission buses as part of a step-change in investment into bus services.