Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on introducing grants to members of the public to assist with the (a) purchase and (b) maintenance of electric cars.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government has put in place various grant funding schemes to assist members of the public to reduce the up-front purchase price of electric vehicles. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles provides a plug-in car grant of £2,500 towards eligible cars costing less than £35,000 and a plug-in van grant with small vans receiving up to £3,000 and large vans up to £6,000. Alongside cars and vans, the plug-in taxi grant gives licensed taxi drivers up to £7,500 off the price of a new vehicle and eligible zero emission mopeds and motorcycles can receive a grant of up to £1,500. In November 2020, Government announced more funding for the plug in vehicle grants. Including funding committed at Budget 2020, this brings a total of £582m for cars, vans, motorcycles and taxis to 2022/23. The March 2020 Budget included the extension of favourable benefit in kind tax rates for zero emission vehicles out to 2025; company car tax is only 1% for this financial year 2021/22 and 2% in 2022/23 through to 2024/25
The Government does not provide grants to assist with the maintenance of electric vehicles. Electric vehicles already have significantly cheaper running costs than petrol or diesel vehicles and all zero emission cars are exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED).
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to introduce recycling centres specifically designed to recycle materials from electric cars.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government is keen to create a circular economy for all electric vehicle batteries. That is why we are supporting the innovation, infrastructure and regulatory environment for a UK battery recycling industry. The Government’s £330 million Faraday Battery Challenge is playing a leading role in promoting the reuse and recycling of battery components. The 2009 Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations bans the disposal of EV batteries to landfill or incineration. Battery producers are obligated to take back EV batteries free-of-charge and treat them at approved facilities. The Government is providing grant funding support through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) to a ground-breaking project (RECOVAS) to create a new circular end-of-life supply chain for the electric vehicle industry. RECOVAS will develop the UK’s first commercial scale recycling facility for automotive battery packs.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to increase the number of charging points for electric cars to help meet the Climate Change Committee's recommendation of 150,000 such points to be introduced by 2025.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The UK has been a global front-runner in supporting provision of charging infrastructure along with private sector investment. Our vision is to have one of the best infrastructure networks in the world for electric vehicles (EVs), and we want chargepoints to be accessible, affordable and secure.
We will invest £1.3 billion in accelerating the roll out of charging infrastructure over the next four years, targeting support on rapid chargepoints on motorways and major roads, and installing more on-street chargepoints near homes and workplaces, to make charging as easy as refuelling a petrol or diesel car. Later this year, we will introduce new regulations under the Automated Electric Vehicles Act (2018) to improve the consumer experience of public charging. We will also be publishing an EV Infrastructure Strategy to set out the vision and action plan for charging infrastructure rollout needed to achieve the 2030/35 phase out successfully. This will set expected roles for different stakeholders and how government will intervene to address the gaps between the current market status and our vision.
The Government has not set an overall target for the number of chargepoints because doing so risks assuming technology stands still and creating a uniform approach to charging mixes and needs across the country. We keep all our policies under review.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he is having with Cabinet colleagues on recognising foreign certification of covid-19 vaccination for the purpose of travel to the UK.
Answered by Robert Courts
We are working closely with medical and public health experts and international partners and will provide an update in due course on how we will approach vaccinated individuals from other countries.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking with local authorities to increase the number of heavy goods vehicle drivers who work in local authority waste collection.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Waste collection is a responsibility of local authorities, and this includes oversight of all components of the service provided.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department made of the potential effect on road safety of the decision to temporarily extend operating hours limits for heavy goods vehicle drivers.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
It is important to remember that the relaxations are limited in nature. No requirements of the rules for breaks during the day, daily & weekly rest periods, and weekly & fortnightly driving limits have been removed. They have been relaxed in a controlled way. In addition, the relaxations are time limited and only made due to exceptional circumstances.
Our issued guidance makes clear that driver safety must not be compromised. Drivers should not be expected to drive whilst tired and employers remain responsible for the health and safety of their employees and other road users.
In addition, drivers remain bound by the requirements in the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005. This ensures that drivers do not work long hours, by limiting their overall working hours (which includes driving and any other work), to an average of 48 hours a week over a 17 to 26-week reference period. These regulations also limit drivers to a maximum of 60 hours in any given week, provided the average is still 48 hours. This guarantees drivers are not working continuously long hours, even if working under a temporary relaxation of the drivers’ hours rules.
There have not been any reported accidents identified to the Department involving drivers working under a drivers’ hours relaxation, although there is no specific reporting requirement.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Portugal and Malta introducing new obligations on arrivals, what discussions he is having with his European counterparts on international travel and requirements for vaccination for children aged 12 to 17.
Answered by Robert Courts
Department for Transport ministers and/or officials have met with counterparts from Portugal, Malta and the EU to discuss the safe and sustainable unlocking of international travel. Our Embassies in these countries, and Mission to the EU are also very active in ensuring that we share relevant information, including on vaccination requirements.
We continue to work with international partners as we seek to cautiously balance the reopening of international travel with managing the public health risks.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish all relevant sources of information that were used alongside the Joint Biosecurity Centre’s publication of data used to inform Ministerial decisions in relation to the international travel traffic-light risk assessments on (a) 3 June 2021 and (b) 24 June 2021.
Answered by Robert Courts
A summary of the JBC methodology has been published on GOV.UK, alongside key data from publicly available platforms such as GISAID, the World Health Organization and host government websites, in relation to the traffic light risk assessments for the 3 and 24 June 2021.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Transport Decarbonisation Plan will include targets to halt and reverse the growth of road traffic.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
We will shortly publish a bold and ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan that will set out a credible pathway to deliver transport’s contribution to carbon budgets and meeting net zero by 2050. This will set out the measures needed to accelerate modal shift to public and active transport making them the natural first choice for our daily activities.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what engagement his Department has had with international partners on best practices for increasing the electrification of the rail network in the UK.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Departmental ministers and officials meet with international partners to discuss issues of mutual interest, which sometimes includes electrification practice. For example, the Rail Minister recently discussed electrification with representatives of the government of Poland. Rail industry research into efficient electrification and Network Rail-led advice to the Department about the decarbonisation of the railway both consider international practice.