Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to protect constituents in Hitchin from inappropriate and dangerous HGV movements on residential streets.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government takes all necessary steps to protect everyone on our roads through road safety laws. We expect all motorists, including those driving HGVs or travelling for work, to respect and comply with those laws. The Police take all necessary steps to enforce the law, ensuring the safety of all road users and residents in local areas.
Local highway authorities have a range of powers to manage their local networks, including powers to make Traffic Regulation Orders which can impose width and height restrictions and set rules around which types of vehicles can use which roads.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of making aircraft noise a statutory nuisance.
Answered by Robert Courts
The government is supportive of the need to protect communities from the adverse effects of aircraft noise. However, noise from general transport, including aircraft, is not included as a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as we believe it is not practical for local authorities to enforce these rules. Aviation noise is better managed through specific government policies tailored to individual noise sources, and we believe there are sufficient mechanisms in place to protect communities from the effects of aircraft noise.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that train companies declassify first class carriages when their trains are operating at high-occupancy levels during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The safety of passengers and staff has been a priority for the Department throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Government has published Safer Travel guidance which sets out steps operators can take to identify risks arising from coronavirus. From 19 July most restrictions have been lifted, including the requirement for social distancing on trains. Within the context of that guidance, it is for train operators to decide how best to manage their services and rolling stock.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 109 on page 20 of the Clean Air Zone Framework, published in February 2020, what support his Department is providing to local authorities setting up Clean Air Zones to help encourage the upgrade of refrigeration units on cold chain vehicles to the least polluting options.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government does not provide any specific advice or support to local authorities with regard to this issue. It is for local authorities to determine their own local measures and exemptions as part of their local plan submitted to the Government.
We are also supporting the development of cleaner alternatives that affected businesses can switch to by doubling the funding provided for the energy innovation programme, accelerating the design and production of clean energy technologies.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how his Department monitors the level of emissions caused by transport refrigeration units; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce such emissions to achieve the target of net zero by 2050.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Emissions from transport refrigeration units are governed by Regulation (EU) 2016/1628, which controls gaseous and particulate pollutants from engines of Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM). This Regulation implements legislative requirements that an engine for NRMM must be approved against before it can be marketed within the UK.
The Department will be working closely with DEFRA and BEIS to ensure the emissions of NRMM, such as transport refrigeration units, reduce in line with the Government’s net zero commitments.
To improve air quality, the UK Government announced its intention to remove the entitlement to use red diesel from April 2022, except for non-commercial heating, agriculture, fish farming and rail. This will ensure that the tax system incentivises users of polluting diesel fuel to change practices or pay for their harmful emissions. The Government has recently consulted on this and is currently analysing responses.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason transport refrigeration units are exempt from the Clean Air Zone Framework in England.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Individual refrigeration units can cause significant levels of pollution; however the standards set out for charging Clean Air Zones (CAZs) set out in the CAZ framework are focussed on vehicle tailpipe emissions, which are the greatest source of roadside pollution by a significant margin.
There are also technical limitations to using CAZs to control such vehicles. CAZs rely on Automated Number Plate Recognition to identify the Euro class of a vehicle but cannot identify whether or not they are a refrigerated vehicle; it would not, at present, be possible to use a CAZ in this way.