Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to collate data on aircraft accidents in commercial operations in which colour vision was a significant factor over the past twenty years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department policy on colour vision is derived from a range of evidence, including but not limited to accident data. This is used to set requirements based on the fact that the perception of colour cues in the external environment is key to safe performance of flight duties. The Department believes there would be little benefit to conducting such an exercise, as knowledge gained from air accident investigations is already reflected in UK policy.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will consider the potential merits of introducing a practical colour vision assessment for commercial pilots.
Answered by Jesse Norman
This Government is committed to ensuring that no one who is safe to fly commercial aircraft is barred from doing so. Regarding colour vision regulations, this means being able to assess the extent of colour vision deficiency accurately, and calibrating requirements to maintain safety standards without unnecessarily penalising those with relatively mild colour vision deficiency. The CAA’s view as regulator is that the Colour Assessment and Diagnosis (CAD) test currently used provides the most accurate and reproducible assessment of an applicant’s class of colour vision. It would therefore not be appropriate to offer a wider range of tests, as the CAD is suitable to the safety requirements of UK aviation.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to support the development of new railway stations at (a) Leeds Bradford Airport, (b) White Rose and (c) Thorpe Park.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
In 2021, the Department announced the results of the £32m New Stations Fund 3, which included £5m for White Rose and £7m for Thorpe Park. White Rose is currently expected to open at the end of 2023, and Thorpe Park in 2024.
The Department also provided the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) with funding to develop the business case for a new Leeds Bradford Airport Parkway Station, through the £173.5m Leeds Public Transport Improvement Programme. WYCA is planning to complete its Final Business Case for the station later this year, with the delivery phase due to start in 2024, subject to planning consent.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric charging points there are in (a) Leeds, (b) Leeds North West constituency, (c) Adel and Wharfedale, (d) Headingley and Hyde Park, (e) Otley and Yeadon and (f) Yeadon.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Data held by the Department for Transport on electric vehicle charging devices is sourced from those installed or funded under government approved grant schemes, operated by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) and from the electric vehicle charging platform Zap-Map. Charging devices not supplied via these schemes or recorded on Zap-Map are not included and the accurate number of charging devices may be higher than recorded in these figures.
The below table details for (a), (b) and in part for (c), (d) and (e):
i. the number of publicly available electric vehicle charging devices as at 1st January 2023 according to Zap-Map;
ii. the number of domestic electric vehicle charging devices as funded by the Domestic Recharge Scheme (DRS) as at the scheme end in 2014;
iii. the number of domestic electric vehicle charging devices funded through the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) at 1st October 2022 and;
iv. workplace electric vehicle charging sockets funded through the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) at 1st October 2022.
| i.) Public charging devices | ii.) DRS charging devices | iii.) EVHS charging devices | iv.) WCS charging sockets |
(a) Leeds | 412 | 212 | 4,908 | 685 |
(b) Leeds North West constituency | 32 | 29 | 708 | 35 |
(c) Adel and Wharfedale | - | - | 357 | 3 |
(d) Headingley and Hyde Park | - | - | 30 | 7 |
(e) Otley and Yeadon | - | - | 141 | 19 |
The data across columns should not be summed to create a total as the public charging device statistics and the EVHS statistics count charging devices whereas WCS counts charging sockets, making them incompatible to sum together.
The remaining data requested for (c) Adel and Wharfedale, (d) Headingley and Hyde Park, (e) Otleyand Yeadon and (f) Yeadon are unavailable as the department is unable to publish data at these geographic levels.
A geographic breakdown of data from the Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant (EVCG) scheme has not yet been published and so has been excluded from this table.
The most recently available published data from the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) show no electric vehicle charging devices have yet been installed in Leeds through the scheme. However, as of 1st October 2022, funding had been awarded to Leeds City Council to install 42 charging devices.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on allocating remaining Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas funding for this financial year.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
In this Parliament we have awarded £320m of dedicated funding for ZEBs in England (outside of London). £270m was allocated to 17 local transport authorities (LTAs) through the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme, supporting up to 1,278 zero emission buses.
The Department will provide details on how future funding will be used shortly, taking into account the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support he is providing to (a) local and (b) combined authorities to help them achieve their public transport objectives for (I) buses and (II) rail.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government is providing over £1billion to 34 local transport authorities, including combined authorities, to support the delivery of their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs).
£5.7 billion has also been allocated to eight Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) as part of the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS), investing in a range of local transport initiatives, including bus and rail schemes. This funding is for 5 years from April 2022.
In addition, £23m bus capacity funding was allocated to all LTAs in 2021/22 to support the development and delivery of their BSIPs and Enhanced Partnerships. A further £11m has been provided in 2022/23 for those LTAs that did not receive BSIP funding.
The Government has also made available £2 billion since March 2020, through emergency and recovery grants, to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on the bus sector. A further £250 million is provided annually to bus operators and Local Transport Authorities through the Bus Service Operators Grant to support bus services.
In 2022/23, the Department for Transport is providing funding of £113m in total to eight local or combined authorities to help them achieve their public transport objectives for rail.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric buses were introduced into (a) the UK and (b) Leeds in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022 and (v) to date in 2023; and what estimate he has made of the number planned to be introduced in (A) 2023, (B) 2024 and (C) 2025.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
In the UK, in 2019, 105 Zero Emission Buses (ZEB) were registered for the first time. In 2020, this was 269, in 2021, 621, and for 2022, 649. This means, in 2021 and 2022, ZEBs equated to around 50% of new bus registrations in the UK.
In Leeds, 9 ZEBs were introduced in 2020, with a further 12 delivered in 2021. These were supported by the Department’s Ultra Low Emission Bus (ULEB) Scheme and through Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding.
As part of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme, West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) received over £24 million to support 111 ZEBs, to serve Leeds, and other districts of the Combined Authority. Additionally, WYCA received funding through the Department’s Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) for a further 8 ZEBs. These are currently going through procurement exercises, and I would expect them to be delivered soon.
We also anticipate that up to the following ZEBs to be on the road over the next three years:
I also welcome National Express’ recent announcement that they are investing in 300 UK-made electric buses, to be delivered by end of 2024. This investment was supported by uplift for ZEBs through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG).
The Department will provide details on future ZEB funding shortly.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to support local governments and combined authorities in holding bus companies to account for their service delivery.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The National Bus Strategy, published in March 2021, set out the Government’s vision for delivering better bus services for passengers across England. All local transport authorities (LTAs) have been asked to improve their bus services using the powers set out in the Transport Act 2000, to meet the requirements of the Strategy and qualify for government funding.
LTAs and bus operators must work together to improve punctuality, reliability, communications and overall passenger satisfaction via a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), delivering that plan either through a statutory Enhanced Partnership (EP) or franchised bus services.
BSIPs must include a mandatory passenger charter which provides all bus users with the right to expect certain standards of service on a consistent basis. In circumstances where standards are consistently missed, LTAs can refer the operator to the Office of the Traffic Commissioner.
My Department is working with the sector to develop a Bus Centre of Excellence which will provide guidance and support to LTAs and operators, to help deliver improved standards of service.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 building new roads on climate targets.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government always considers the climate impact of its actions, which is why the UK has been so successful in reducing our carbon emissions to date. In the case of road building, that involves looking at embedded carbon, where DfT projects have pioneered reducing the carbon associated with construction, and carbon from vehicles operating on a new road. Where new road infrastructure can alleviate serious congestion, this offers a prospect of reducing carbon emissions from vehicles.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if it remains his policy to implement support for active travel as outlined in his Department's Gear Change document.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In July 2022, the Government published the second statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2), reaffirming its commitment to active travel and setting out the objectives and the financial resources in place to achieve these for the period 2021 to 2025.
In August 2022, the Department formally established Active Travel England as an Executive Agency. Active Travel England is already overseeing the delivery of £200 million of active travel schemes this financial year, and is rapidly recruiting its core staff, as well as putting in place its formal governance structures.