Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of delays in driving test appointments on the ability of farms to recruit staff with the required skills.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Tractor training and testing resumed in England and Wales on 29 March, and on 26 April in Scotland.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has put in place a number of measures to increase practical driving tests. These include offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays). The DVSA has also started a recruitment campaign to increase the number of examiners.
It is not within the DVSA’s remit to assess the ability of farms to recruit staff but it fully appreciates the challenges that suspending driver training and testing has had, including for those in the agricultural sector. The DVSA’s top priority has been to keep everyone safe and only resume its testing services when safe to do so.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of people awaiting driving tests; and what steps are being taken to increase driving test capacity.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
There are currently over 400,000 people with a test booked.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has put in place a number of measures to increase practical driving tests. These include offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays). The DVSA has also started a recruitment campaign to increase the number of examiners. The aim is to increase testing capacity and reduce the backlog as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining a COVID-secure service for customers and examiners.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric vehicle fast charge points have been installed in Romsey and Southampton North constituency in the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Data on electric vehicle charging devices are presented in the table below. Figures include rapid charging devices whose fastest connector is rated at 43kW and above, and charging devices that were available on 1st July 2020 and installed in the 12 months previous (since 1st July 2019).
Area | Total Public Devices1 | Rapid Devices |
(a) Romsey and Southampton North constituency | 8 | 0 |
(b) Hampshire county | 113 | 25 |
(c) UK | 4,969 | 1,030 |
Total devices represent publicly available charging devices at all speeds.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric vehicle fast charge points have been installed in Hampshire in the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Data on electric vehicle charging devices are presented in the table below. Figures include rapid charging devices whose fastest connector is rated at 43kW and above, and charging devices that were available on 1st July 2020 and installed in the 12 months previous (since 1st July 2019).
Area | Total Public Devices1 | Rapid Devices |
(a) Romsey and Southampton North constituency | 8 | 0 |
(b) Hampshire county | 113 | 25 |
(c) UK | 4,969 | 1,030 |
Total devices represent publicly available charging devices at all speeds.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric vehicle fast charge points have been installed in the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Data on electric vehicle charging devices are presented in the table below. Figures include rapid charging devices whose fastest connector is rated at 43kW and above, and charging devices that were available on 1st July 2020 and installed in the 12 months previous (since 1st July 2019).
Area | Total Public Devices1 | Rapid Devices |
(a) Romsey and Southampton North constituency | 8 | 0 |
(b) Hampshire county | 113 | 25 |
(c) UK | 4,969 | 1,030 |
Total devices represent publicly available charging devices at all speeds.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average distance is between electric vehicle fast charge points in the UK; and what the average distance is between petrol stations in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Complete data covering the whole of the UK is not held. On 1 July 2020 there were 3,187 rapid public charging devices rated at 43kW or above in Great Britain (GB) and, according to Experian, in May 2020 there were 8,362 fuel stations in GB. Total road length in GB is 247,055 miles which means there is a rapid device for every 78 miles of road and one fuel station for every 30 miles of road.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of grants in each of the Transport-technology research innovation grants funding rounds have been awarded to (a) female entrepreneurs and (b) companies led by women.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Since 2014, 13 out of 176 or 7.4% of grants offered under The Transport-Technology Research Innovation Grants (T-TRIG) or similar schemes have been awarded to teams led by women.
We do not hold data on the sex of the leaders of these companies either when grants were offered or now.
Each of these projects were delivered by teams. We do not hold data on the sex of members of delivery teams.
We are planning to expand the collection of equality data as part of T-TRIG 2020 and are working with the Connected Places Catapult and Innovate UK to maximise the diversity of applications to the current call.