Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on the length of time it takes for an application to be successful of Driver and Vehicle Licensing Association delays in returning Biometric Residence Permits to driving licence applicants.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Currently, paper driving licence applications are likely to take between six and ten weeks to process. However, on selected transactions, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency returns original documents as soon as the application is opened to reduce the impact of processing delays and is working to expand this further.
Driving licence applications where the applicant is required to submit a biometric residency permit (BRP), are also likely to take between six and ten weeks to process. The BRP will be returned to the applicant as soon as the application has been processed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.
If a driving licence applicant’s identity cannot be verified by HM Passport Office or via another secure service, the requirement for original identity documents remains a critical part of protecting the driving licence application process from potential fraud. There are no plans to remove these requirements.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the average amount of time the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency retains original identity documents for driving licence applications from applicants whose identity cannot be verified with the UK Passport Agency, from receipt of that document until it is returned, in (a) 2019 and (b) 2021.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Currently, paper driving licence applications are likely to take between six and ten weeks to process. However, on selected transactions, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency returns original documents as soon as the application is opened to reduce the impact of processing delays and is working to expand this further.
Driving licence applications where the applicant is required to submit a biometric residency permit (BRP), are also likely to take between six and ten weeks to process. The BRP will be returned to the applicant as soon as the application has been processed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.
If a driving licence applicant’s identity cannot be verified by HM Passport Office or via another secure service, the requirement for original identity documents remains a critical part of protecting the driving licence application process from potential fraud. There are no plans to remove these requirements.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the reasons are for Mauritius being placed on the UK's red list of countries for which hotel quarantine is required; and when a review of the countries placed on that red list is scheduled to take place.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The decision to place Mauritius on the red list on 9 January was in direct response to scientific and medical data, which represents an increased risk to UK public health and an increased risk of community transmission of COVID-19 variants of concern identified in other countries. These are intended to be temporary measures and the government keeps data for countries and territories under constant review.
The government has made it consistently clear that it will take decisive action to contain the virus, including adding further countries to the red list, or keeping countries on the red list, if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will waive the charge for the driving theory test for people who passed the theory test in the past two years but have been unable to take their practical driving test owing to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
There are no current plans to waive the charge of a theory test for those whose theory test certificates have expired, given that they will have already received the service for which they paid.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) pays its contractor, Pearson, per theory test delivered. If candidates were exempted from having to pay for a retake then the DVSA and in turn other fee payers would incur these costs. This would be unfair to fee payers who would not benefit from the arrangement.
In addition, applications for a re-test would need to be validated and systems amended to remove the requirement for payment in these cases. The DVSA’s focus should rightly be on developing solutions to address the backlog of practical driving tests that has arisen as a result of the pandemic.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the (a) socio-economic and (b) equalities impact of low-traffic neighbourhoods in (a) Poplar and Limehouse and (b) England.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department has not made any assessment of these factors in either Poplar and Limehouse or England.
It is for local authorities to ensure that any changes they propose to make to road layouts are delivered in line with relevant legislation, consultation and noticing requirements. The Department recommends they carry out monitoring and evaluation of schemes but it is for them to determine how to do so, in line with relevant good practice.
To support the Active Travel Fund, the Government has published additional Network Management Duty guidance which clearly set out what the Government expects local authorities to do in making changes to their road layouts to encourage cycling and walking in response to Covid-19 and to support a green restart and recovery.
The guidance is clear that the Public Sector Equality Duty still applies and in making any changes to their road networks, authorities must consider the needs of disabled people and those with other protected characteristics, for example by carrying out Equality Impact Assessments on proposed schemes.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent public awareness-raising campaigns his Department has undertaken on rule 170 in the Highway Code.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department for Transport promotes road safety messaging through the THINK! campaign. While we are not directly running a campaign on rule 170 of The Highway Code, THINK! has incorporated messaging around taking extra care at junctions in its recent campaigns. In March 2019, THINK! ran a campaign for new drivers, which featured a short film on looking out for cyclists, motorcyclists, and horse riders at junctions. This summer, with the increase in cycling and walking, THINK! collaborated with the Department’s Safer Transport campaign to promote cycle safety tips, including advice for drivers to check for cyclists when pulling out at junctions.
We are analysing consultation responses following a review of The Highway Code which aims to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians, particularly at road junctions. THINK! continues to review its campaign priorities and will ensure that communications on changes to The Highway Code, including key messaging on how to behave at junctions, will be incorporated into future campaigns.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of staff who applied for promotion within his Department between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020 and identified as (a) BAME and (b) White were successful at each grade; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Diversity and Inclusion is at the heart of resourcing across the Department for Transport (DfT); developing and testing innovative new approaches to attract and hire a more diverse candidate pool. We have clear objectives to increase representation rates to reflect the proportion of BAME individuals in the local working-age population, strengthen our BAME talent pipeline (grades 6 and 7) and our leadership cadre (SCS) as well as increase diversity in roles and professions where BAME staff are underrepresented.
The data provided relates to roles advertised by the Department for Transport on the Civil Service Jobs recruitment platform. Any permanent promotion opportunities within the department would be advertised on the platform to allow fair and open competition with an appointment being made on merit in line with the Civil Service Commissioners principles.
The data provided is based on identifications of applicants who are currently Civil Servants in any government department or agency, and is not restricted to promotions just from the DfT workforce and covers the Department and its four executive agencies. It does not include the diversity of applicants or successful applicants who were applying from outside the Civil Service. The data can be found in the attached table.
The completeness and accuracy of the data above is influenced by the following factors.
For vacancies advertised across government, individuals need to have a verified account to confirm their eligibility as existing Civil Servants. As part of their personal profile, Civil Servants are requested to provide their current substantive grade. If individuals have not completed their personal profile we would be unable to identify whether they were promoted.
For vacancies advertised externally, individuals have the option to use a privately registered account as there is no requirement for them to confirm that they are existing Civil Servants. This means that in the instance that an existing Civil Servant applies for an externally advertised vacancy using a private account, then we cannot identify whether or not the successful individual is being promoted.
In light of this, the data provided may not be comprehensive and would only be indicative of ‘how many and what proportion of Civil Service staff who applied for promotion within his Department between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020 and identified as (a) BAME and (b) White were successful at each grade’.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support is available to UK citizens who are stranded abroad with an out-of-date driving licence which is preventing them from returning to the UK.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
As a driving licence is not a travel document, an out of date licence should not prevent a UK citizen from returning to the UK. There is no facility to issue temporary emergency driving licences.
UK citizens with an urgent need to travel who do not have a valid passport may be able to apply for an emergency travel document. Information on how to how to apply for an emergency travel document can be found at https://www.gov.uk/emergency-travel-document
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it possible for a UK citizen stranded abroad with an out-of-date driving licence to receive a temporary emergency licence in order for them to return the UK.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
As a driving licence is not a travel document, an out of date licence should not prevent a UK citizen from returning to the UK. There is no facility to issue temporary emergency driving licences.
UK citizens with an urgent need to travel who do not have a valid passport may be able to apply for an emergency travel document. Information on how to how to apply for an emergency travel document can be found at https://www.gov.uk/emergency-travel-document
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to ensure that train operating companies and their subcontractors use a deep cleaning service to help mitigate the spread of covid-19 on public transport.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
To help tackle the spread of coronavirus, rail operators and Network Rail are doing more to ensure our trains and stations are clean. The kinds of steps being taken include a greater focus on cleaning high-touch areas in trains and at stations (such as hand rails and ticket machine screens), more intensive cleaning and ensuring toilets are well stocked with soap.
In addition, they are also ensuring their staff are kept aware of the latest advice to maintain good hand hygiene. They are also promoting the public health advice for everyone to wash their hands regularly and to ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ when they cough or sneeze.