Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to increase bus use in (a) the North West, (b) Merseyside, (c) Wirral and (d) Wallasey constituency.
Answered by George Freeman
The bus market outside London is deregulated and decisions regarding service provision are primarily a commercial matter for bus operators. The Bus Services Act 2017 provides the tools local authorities need to improve local bus services and increase passenger numbers.
The Government wants to see a long term, sustained improvement in bus services. On 30 September last year, the Government announced that it will develop a national bus strategy for England, to underpin that ambition. Further details on this will be announced in due course. Alongside the commitment to a national strategy, we announced a package of measures worth £220 million, to transform bus services across the country. Those measures include creating ‘Superbus’ networks with higher frequencies and lower fares, trialling demand-responsive transport solutions in rural and suburban areas, and creating an all-electric bus town or city. We will shortly seek expressions of interest for those funds. We will also provide an extra £30 million in 2020/21 for local authorities, including the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, to improve current supported bus services and to restore lost bus services where most needed.
The Government also continues to support bus services through the Bus Service Operator’s Grant (BSOG). £250m of BSOG payments are made to bus operators and local authorities. Bus operators and community transport organisations in the North West were paid a total of £28,029,122 BSOG in 2018-19 to help meet some of their fuel costs in running local bus services. Local authorities within the North West received a total of £7,896,387 in BSOG during 2018-19 to support subsidised local bus services. In addition to this a further £13,150,811 was devolved to Great Manchester Combined Authority for services running within the Greater Manchester area.
BSOG spend figures are published on Gov.uk and can be found via this link https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-services-grants-and-funding. There are no specific figures for Wallasey, which is within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve rail services in (a) the North West, (b) Merseyside, (c) Wirral and (d) Wallasey constituency.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
In response to passengers’ needs, Northern introduced, in the December 2019 timetable, an extension of the Alderley Edge to Southport route which now takes customers into Manchester Piccadilly. It also secured a recent agreement with ASLEF to improve the reliability of Sunday services which will significantly reduce cancellations in the North West. Also, in December, Trans-Pennine Express (TPE) introduced a brand new service between Liverpool and Glasgow with three services running in each direction every day.
The introduction of new trains by both TPE and Northern also means an improved customer experience and faster journey times, connecting passengers to cities across the network.
Trains services in the Wirral and Wallasey are provided by Merseyrail, the management of which is a devolved responsibility of Liverpool City Region.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of new funding for road maintenance will be allocated to (a) Liverpool City Region and (b) Wirral council.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government is committed to improving local infrastructure and expects to announce details of the available funding shortly. Individual allocations of this funding will be subject to Ministerial decisions.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many cessations of bus services (a) his Department and (b) Traffic Commissioners were notified of in (a) the North West, (b) Merseyside and (c) Wirral in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Freeman
Changes to bus services are notified to the Traffic Commissioners.
The Traffic Commissioners’ Annual Report for 2018-19 is due to be published in the Autumn. The latest published data from the Traffic Commissioners regarding the number of cancelled registrations can be found online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-commissioners-annual-report-2017-to-2018
The numbers of cancelled registrations will not be the same as the number of cessations of bus services: a registration that is cancelled may be complemented by a new service introduction that is an exact match or a slight variation to the one which has been cancelled.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much of the £200 million of increased funding to transform bus services announced in the Spending Round 2019 he plans to allocate in (a) the North West, (b) Merseyside, (c) Wirral and (d) Wallasey.
Answered by George Freeman
On 30 September, the Government announced a package worth £220 million to transform bus services.
We will shortly be seeking expressions of interest from local authorities and bus operators in developing an all-electric bus town or city. Up to £50 million will be invested to contribute to new buses and the supporting infrastructure.
We will also be seeking expressions of interest for the new £20 million fund for trialling on-demand services in rural and suburban areas.
The Government will also pay an extra £30 million directly to local authorities in 2020/21 to enable them to improve current bus services or to restore lost services.
The Government will fund a 4 year ‘Superbus’ pilot in Cornwall to bring down fares. We are also exploring whether a further pilot could be developed to decrease fares and improve frequencies in an urban area through the local authority and bus operators entering into a partnership to deliver a Superbus network. The local authority would provide capital investment in bus lanes and other bus priority measures, in exchange for the bus operators delivering high frequency services.
Further details of the package can be found online with the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-better-deal-for-bus-users/a-better-deal-for-bus-users
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the criteria was for deciding that Bristol Port needed £100,000 to prepare for the UK exiting the EU.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Port of Bristol was a successful applicant to the recent £10 million Port Infrastructure Connectivity and Resilience (PIRC) fund. The objectives of the fund are to help ports deliver contingency upgrades to enhance their capacity, maintain freight flow and improve overall resilience.
The PIRC fund was run as a fair and open competition for all English ports, whose project bids were then assessed against the objectives of the fund, and key criteria such as delivery date, capacity and capability, project delivery and longer term benefits, alongside key legal elements such as a state aid compliance.
There were 16 successful applicants to the fund receiving grants ranging from £100,000 to £1 million.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve rail connectivity between Wallasey and Liverpool.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Rail services between Wallasey and Liverpool are provided by Merseyrail. The management of Merseyrail is fully devolved to Merseytravel on behalf of Liverpool City Region, who would therefore be responsible for initiatives to improve connectivity between Wallasey and Liverpool.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what meetings his Department has had with Wirral Council to discuss preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
DfT supports MHCLG’s Brexit discussions with local authority leaders and local authority Chief Executives to outline its work on Brexit preparedness and to address transport queries.
No meetings have taken place with Wirral Council, but DfT is directly engaging with Merseyside Local Resilience Forum, which includes emergency responders, councils and other public services.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2019 to Question 253509, for what reason his Department does not hold data on whether cargo was moving within the vehicle during accidents involving lorries.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Department does not hold specific data on whether cargo was moving within vehicles involved in accidents, as this information is not required from the police in the Stats19 data collection. However, ‘overloaded or poorly loaded vehicle or trailer’ can be recorded as a contributory factor.
The Department periodically reviews the data collection on personal injury road accidents reported to the police, in a process called Stats19 reviews. A Stats19 review started in autumn 2018 and is currently considering what amendments need to be made to the collection.
In making recommendations for change, the review considers evidence on the burden this would impose on the police to collect it for every accident, the practicality and likely quality of the data collected and potential benefits in building the road safety evidence base to save lives. We aim to consult on potential changes to the collection in 2020 following detailed engagement with the police and road safety organisations in 2019.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that health and safety checks are carried out to ensure that all HGV lorries carry cargo that is properly secured.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) checks the security of loads on heavy goods vehicles (HGV) during roadside encounters as part of its enforcement duties, although the responsibility for making sure the load a HGV is carrying is secure before driving rests with the driver and operator.
If the DVSA finds a HGV’s load is unsafe during a roadside encounter, the DVSA (or the police) can take enforcement action. This can result in either penalty points, legal proceedings being issued or a report being sent to the Traffic Commissioner (TC). After consideration of a report from the DVSA, the TC may take regulatory action for failure to comply with the undertaking of an operator’s licence. Disciplinary action can include suspension, curtailment or revocation of an operator licence.
Drivers must conduct a daily walk round of their vehicle before starting a journey. They must also check any load is secure. These requirements are covered within the DVSA’s ‘Guide to maintaining roadworthiness’ which provides useful diagrams to fully explain drivers’ responsibilities and what should be checked during an effective walk round check.