Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has allocated to Stonewall in each of the last five years; and for what projects.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department for Transport, including its Executive Agencies (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Vehicle Certification Agency, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency), has allocated the following funding to Stonewall in the last five years:
The Department has no plans currently to renew its Stonewall membership.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2021 to Question 45033 on Department for Transport: Listed Buildings, if he will publish a list of the properties classified as heritage assets by his Department as opposed to those owned through local authorities giving the (a) value and (b) annual income derived for each of those properties.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As part of the Government’s Transparency Agency information about Department for Transport properties is published on the data.gov.uk website. Please follow the below link, and select the ‘Property (excel download)’ file and download.
https://data.gov.uk/dataset/epimstransparency
Information on the properties classified as heritage assets, value of those properties and income derived from those properties can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the (a) properties classified as heritage assets by his Department, (b) most recent estimate of the value of those properties and (c) annual income derived from those properties.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As part of the Government’s Transparency Agency information about Department for Transport properties is published on the data.gov.uk website:
https://data.gov.uk/dataset/epimstransparency
Information on the properties classified as heritage assets, value of those properties and income derived from those properties can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency is taking to clear the backlog for learner drivers wanting to take their driving test following the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has put in place a number of measures to increase practical driving tests. These include offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays). The DVSA has also started a recruitment campaign to increase the number of examiners. The aim is to increase testing capacity and reduce the backlog as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining a COVID-secure service for customers and examiners.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the UK-France reciprocal agreement on driving licences will be agreed.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is making every effort to reach a swift understanding with France regarding long-term licence exchange arrangements for UK nationals resident in France, and vice-versa. UK nationals who became resident in France before 1 January 2021 can continue to use their valid UK licences until 31 December 2021. The French authorities have confirmed that a valid UK licence will continue to be exchanged in this period, until a reciprocal agreement is reached between the United Kingdom and France.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the period of the theory test certificate in response to the suspension of theory and practical driving tests as a result of the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place for road safety reasons; to ensure that a candidate’s knowledge is current. This validity period is set in legislation and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.
It is important that road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point that they drive unsupervised for the first time. Those with theory test certificates expiring may have taken their test in early 2019. Since then, their lessons and practice sessions will have been significantly curtailed during recent lockdowns and it is likely that their knowledge base will have diminished. Research suggests that this would be particularly harmful for hazard perception skills, a key factor in road safety.
Ensuring new drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the training of new drivers, who are disproportionality represented in casualty statistics. Taking all this into consideration, the decision has been made not to extend theory test certificates and learners will need to pass another theory test if their certificate expires.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the estimated total cost is of the recently announced preferred route for the A27 Arundel bypass; and what the expected timescale is to completion.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The total cost for delivery of the A27 Arundel Bypass preferred route (Grey, Option 5BV1), which was announced on 15 October 2020, will be between £320 and £455 million, as set out at the further public consultation in 2019. This figure is subject to the development of the scheme through detailed design and ongoing commercial discussions.
Construction will commence in 2023/24 and will take approximately 36 months.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations he has received from archaeological groups on objections to the Stonehenge Tunnel; and what plans he has to address the objections.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Secretary of State’s decision to approve the A303 (Amesbury to Berwick Down) Development Consent Order was issued on 12 November 2020. The reasons for the decision are set out in the decision letter published on the Planning Inspectorate’s website at: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/south-west/a303-stonehenge/. It includes consideration of the representations made by archaeological groups and other Interested Parties.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many qualified archaeologists are being deployed on survey and excavation work relating to High Speed Two construction.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of archaeologists required and consequently deployed will vary as the HS2 project moves forward. HS2 Ltd has estimated that they will need the skills of over 1,000 archaeologists and associated specialisms for the entire HS2 archaeology programme.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he next plans to report on proposals for upgrading the A27 between Worthing and Shoreham.
Answered by George Freeman
The second Road Investment Strategy will confirm the Government’s plans for the Strategic Road Network. We expect this to be published before the start of the second Road Period on 1 April 2020.