Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Coastguard Rescue Officers are available for service in each Coastguard station along the Ceredigion coast; and what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of those numbers.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
There are six Coastguard Rescue Teams (CRTs) along the Ceredigion coast with 45 volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers (CROs) currently available for service. The number in each team is shown below:
Location of CRT | CROs available |
Cardigan | 8 |
Gwbert | 3 |
New Quay | 8 |
Aberystwyth | 9 |
Borth | 8 |
Aberdyfi | 9 |
Her Majesty’s Coastguard continually monitors the number of available CROs. They are all volunteers and as such there is no mutuality of obligation so their availability can vary throughout any specified period. During an incident the Search Mission Co-ordinator monitors the response levels and if further CROs are required to attend the incident then they will task the flank CRTs.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to close the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency office on (a) Longview Road, Swansea, (b) Upper Forest Way, Swansea and (c) the Trinity House office at Kings Dock, Swansea.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
There are no plans to close the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s offices at either Longview Road or Upper Forest Way in Swansea. These remain in the DVLA’s long term estates strategy. The property at Trinity House, Kings Dock is not part of the DVLA estate.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the restrictions on newly-qualified drivers in Northern Ireland on road safety in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
There is evidence from countries in which a system of Graduated Driving Licences (GDL) has been implemented to suggest that it can have a beneficial effect on road safety.
The Department has decided to use the introduction of GDL in Northern Ireland as a pilot, to gather evidence on the potential for GDL in Great Britain. Officials from the Department and Northern Ireland are currently discussing how to take this work forward.
More widely, the Department is making good progress against an ambitious range of measures to enhance the safety of UK road users as set out in its 2015 Road Safety statement. This includes the doubling of penalty points for motorists using a phone whilst driving, which means that new drivers, within 2 years of passing their test, risk having their licence revoked if caught.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing restrictions on newly qualified drivers to improve road safety.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
There is evidence from countries in which a system of Graduated Driving Licences (GDL) has been implemented to suggest that it can have a beneficial effect on road safety.
The Department has decided to use the introduction of GDL in Northern Ireland as a pilot, to gather evidence on the potential for GDL in Great Britain. Officials from the Department and Northern Ireland are currently discussing how to take this work forward.
More widely, the Department is making good progress against an ambitious range of measures to enhance the safety of UK road users as set out in its 2015 Road Safety statement. This includes the doubling of penalty points for motorists using a phone whilst driving, which means that new drivers, within 2 years of passing their test, risk having their licence revoked if caught.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many road traffic accidents in (a) Wales and (b) England were caused by newly qualified drivers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Department does not hold information on how long drivers in reported road accidents held their licence for. The Department collects data on personal injury road accidents reported to the police, including contributory factors which the police identify when they attend the scene. This does not assign blame for the accident but gives an indication of factors the attending officer thought contributed to the accident. The following table shows the number and proportion of accidents where the contributory factor ‘learner or inexperienced driver/rider’ was reported by severity for England and Wales in the years 2013 to 2017.
Reported accidents1 where contributory factor 'Learner or inexperienced driver/rider' reported by severity and country, 2013 to 2017 | ||||||||||||
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| Fatal accidents |
| Serious accidents |
| Slight accidents |
| All accidents | ||||
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| Number | Per cent |
| Number | Per cent |
| Number | Per cent |
| Number | Per cent |
England | 2013 | 51 | 4 |
| 743 | 5 |
| 3,373 | 4 |
| 4,167 | 4 |
| 2014 | 36 | 3 |
| 720 | 5 |
| 3,453 | 4 |
| 4,209 | 4 |
| 2015 | 43 | 4 |
| 686 | 5 |
| 3,305 | 4 |
| 4,034 | 4 |
| 2016 | 30 | 3 |
| 690 | 4 |
| 2,767 | 4 |
| 3,487 | 4 |
| 2017 | 32 | 3 |
| 754 | 5 |
| 2,745 | 4 |
| 3,531 | 4 |
Wales | 2013 | 2 | 2 |
| 36 | 4 |
| 171 | 4 |
| 209 | 4 |
| 2014 | 4 | 4 |
| 49 | 5 |
| 172 | 4 |
| 225 | 4 |
| 2015 | 4 | 4 |
| 46 | 5 |
| 146 | 4 |
| 196 | 4 |
| 2016 | 2 | 2 |
| 43 | 5 |
| 161 | 5 |
| 206 | 5 |
| 2017 | 4 | 4 |
| 47 | 6 |
| 104 | 3 |
| 155 | 4 |
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1 Includes only accidents where a police officer attended the scene and in which a contributory factor was reported. A total of 72 per cent of accidents reported to the police in 2017 in Great Britain met these criteria. | Source: DfT STATS19 | |||||||||||
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Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Network Rail on the use of glyphosate along tracks after tree felling.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
This is an operational matter for Network Rail, which must comply with all environmental and safety regulations in its role as manager of Britain’s railway infrastructure.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many road tax payments were made (a) in full, (b) as monthly payments and (c) as two six-month payments in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The following table shows the number of annual, monthly and six-monthly direct debit payments for vehicle excise duty since this facility was introduced in October 2014.
Financial year | 12-month licence | 12-month licence | Six-month licence* |
2014/15 (1 October 2014 – to 31 March 2015) | 540,421 | 4,009,244 | 604,447 |
2015/16 | 1,164,574 | 8,880,444 | 1,640,650 |
2016/17 | 1,243,301 | 10,762,883 | 1,194,294 |
2017/18 | 1,290,963 | 11,471,366 | 943.972 |
2018/19 (1 April 2018 – 31 May 2018) | 212,451 | 2,030,331 | 141,654 |
*This column shows figures for all six-month vehicle licences paid for by direct debit. Not all of these payments will be for the same vehicle by the same keeper.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the revenue to the public purse as a result of the five per cent surcharge applied to road tax payments made monthly or as two six-month payments in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The information requested is not readily available and could only be retrieved at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date his policy to stop tree felling on Network Rail land came into force.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Network Rail agreed to suspend all tree felling for the duration of the current nesting season, except where it is safety critical, on 11th May 2018. This followed my announcement on 10th May, that I would commission an independent review into Network Rail’s approach to vegetation management in England and Wales.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, under what conditions trees on Network Rail land can still be felled.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Network Rail published its own position statement on the 11th May 2018, outlining the conditions where tree felling may continue, in accordance with Network Rail’s statutory responsibility to ensure the safe operation of the railways. This guidance states that all tree felling activity in England and Wales must cease, except where the work is safety critical.