Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Uber on (a) passenger safety and (b) private hire and taxi laws.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Department for Transport Ministers regularly meet with taxi and private hire vehicle stakeholders, including Uber, to discuss a range of issues. Information on ministerial meetings is published quarterly at www.gov.uk/government/collections/dft-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings. I attended a Parliamentary reception hosted by Uber in December 2023.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to review the effectiveness of the Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener, in the context of the omission of (a) taxis and (b) private hire vehicles.
Answered by Guy Opperman
There is no omission - taxis and private hire vehicles are subject to the same end of sale dates as set by the Government for cars and vans. Plug-in grants will continue until at least financial year 2024/25 for taxis.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of regulation of (a) Uber and (b) other private hire operators.
Answered by Guy Opperman
It is the responsibility of local authorities to determine the requirements that must be met by all PHV operators, including Uber, although the Government issues guidance to assist them in carrying out this function.
The Government intends to legislate to enable the setting of national standards for taxi and PHV licensing, enhance licensing authority enforcement powers and establish a national licensing database when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help ensure passenger safety in the private hire sector.
Answered by Guy Opperman
It is the responsibility of local authorities to determine the requirements that must be met by all PHV operators, including Uber, although the Government issues guidance to assist them in carrying out this function.
The Government intends to legislate to enable the setting of national standards for taxi and PHV licensing, enhance licensing authority enforcement powers and establish a national licensing database when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Government's net zero policies on the cost of insurance for electric vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The transition to zero emission vehicles is crucial to the decarbonisation of the transport sector. Electric vehicles offer most drivers savings in terms of lower running and maintenance costs. The Government is working closely with the insurance sector to ensure that the transition to zero emission vehicles is sustainable and cost effective. The insurance sector will continue to evolve in line with the growing EV market, and as data becomes more available to inform insurance premiums.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the impact of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme on West Yorkshire.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
We are committed to supporting the introduction of 4,000 zero emission buses and achieving an all zero-emission bus fleet across the entire UK. Across the UK, an estimated 3,400 zero emission buses have been funded so far.
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority received £30.3 million from the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme which will support the introduction of 136 zero emission buses.
We will publish the first report from the Department’s monitoring and evaluation project for the ZEBRA scheme, covering process evaluation of the pre-implementation phase of the project, in due course.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to upgrade trains which travel through Morley and Outwood constituency.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
All Northern’s fleet travelling through Morley and Outwood constituency will either be new or refurbished trains with the digital upgrades due to be completed by 31 December 2021.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the average commuter time for residents in the Morley and Outwood constituency.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) programme is a multi-billion-pound investment and the Government’s largest single investment in upgrading the country’s existing railway in the next five years. TRU will deliver extensive reliability, capacity and journey time improvements across the key east to west route, from Manchester Victoria to York, via Morley. Network Rail continue to progress development and design of the programme.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of fatalities on roads in Yorkshire.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Road safety is a priority for the Government and the Department for Transport is working with road safety stakeholders to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads. We have some of the safest roads in the world, but the Government is not complacent and there is more work to be done.
As part of our in Safer Roads funding to help reduce the number of deaths and serious injury on England’s 50 most dangerous roads, North Yorkshire County Council benefitted from a total of £11.5 million to improve four roads.
The Government is also currently progressing a review into roads policing and traffic enforcement. This review will not only highlight where police forces are doing good work, it will show what more can be done to improve road safety.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage young people to enter the transport industry.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department for Transport is leading efforts to promote training and career opportunities for young people in the transport sector. This will help ensure we can deliver the huge investment we are making in our transport system and help build the skilled workforce for the coming decades. Some of the steps we are taking include:
In the coming months we also plan to publish a Transport Labour Market and Skills Discussion Paper. This will set out the labour market and skills challenges and opportunities for the transport sector post Covid and how we plan to build a pipeline of talent for the future. We will use this as the basis of consultation with industry and other stakeholders to find out what more we can do to make progress in this vital area.