Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2019 to Question 1588 on Crewe-Holyhead Railway Line, what recommendations were made on the strategic outline business case for delivering journey time improvements on the North Wales main line; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
In light of the SOBC findings indicating a promising business case, the Government is progressing a ‘Decision to Develop’ through the governance of the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline to take the development of a scheme to the next stage.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2019 to Question 70, how many full impact assessments for measures greater than £5 million his Department has undertaken.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
DfT has completed and published four full impact assessments for EU Exit measures.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department uses Office for National Statistics estimates of personal well-being in formulating policy; and what policies his Department has introduced to improve personal well-being in the past 12 months.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
This Government recognises the important role transport plays in connecting communities, which is why we have committed £72 billion in capital spending over the five years until 2020/21.
In the past 12 months the Department for Transport has also introduced several initiatives that contribute to improving personal well-being.
Reflecting buses’ vital role in connecting communities and reducing isolation, in September 2019 the Government announced a £220 million package to transform bus services. This included £30 million extra funding for local authorities to enable them to improve current bus services or to restore lost services. This funding is additional to the over £2 billion of existing public sector support for buses.
In the Government’s 2018 Loneliness Strategy the Department made several commitments, including:
Building partnerships with transport providers and community groups who are developing initiatives for how transport can be used as a means for tackling loneliness
Putting the need for inclusive transport at the heart of our approach to the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge
Supporting community groups wishing to make use of unused or underused railway property
Providing funding to the Community Transport Association for driver training, recognising the key role they play in connecting their local community
Working with seven Mobility Centres in England to pilot ‘community hubs’ which will help support those that are at risk of loneliness
In July 2019, Nusrat Ghani announced the following as part of the one year anniversary of the Inclusive Transport Strategy:
That 73 stations would receive a share of £300 million for the Access for All Fund, delivering accessibility improvements between 2019 and 2024
That 22 Motorway Service Areas will receive a share of a £2 million fund, run in partnership with Muscular Dystrophy UK, for fully accessible Changing Places toilet facilities
The extension of the Blue Badge eligibility criteria to include people with non-visible disabilities
The Government is also committed to increasing cycling and walking and making our roads safer for vulnerable users – our aim is to double cycling and increase walking by 2025. Almost £2 billion is therefore being invested in cycling and walking over this Parliament through the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
In the development of policy, the Department uses a wide range of evidence, including data from across ONS sources. We are continuing to build our understanding in this area and plan to shortly publish a social behavioural literature review into the impact of transport on wellbeing.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the cost to the Civil Aviation Authority of taking on functions currently performed by the European Aviation Safety Agency after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The CAA spent £2.7 million on Brexit preparations in 2018/19 and expects to spend up to £1.6 million during 2019/20. It has recruited around 50 additional FTEs in preparation for Brexit. The UK is seeking continued close cooperative arrangements with the EU on aviation safety as part of an ambitious and comprehensive future relationship after exit. This will help minimise regulatory burdens for UK and EU industry and maintain safety standards across Europe.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of the budget for High Speed Two has been allocated to rail infrastructure improvement projects from Holyhead to Crewe.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Our current plans would see passengers in North Wales benefitting from an HS2 interchange at Crewe, with shorter journey times to London and improved cross-country connectivity. The Government has also funded recent major signalling and track renewals to improve reliability on the North Wales Coast Line. In addition, we have recently funded work on a strategic outline business case for delivering journey time improvements on the North Wales main line.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 22 of the Government's No Deal Readiness report, if he will place in the Library the list of objective criteria for assessing priority need by which European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) permits have been allocated; and how many ECMT permits have been allocated as of 14 October 2019.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The criteria used when assessing ECMT permit applications between November 2018 and March 2019 were set out in the Haulage Permits Guidance document which was published in November 2018 and a copy has been placed in the Library.
With regards to ECMT permit numbers, as of 14 October 2019, 92 ECMT short-term permits have been issued and 774 annual ECMT permits have been issued for 2019.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many EU member states have confirmed that commercial driving licences issued in the UK will be recognised without an international driver's permit in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
24 EU Member States have confirmed that visiting UK photocard driving licence holders will not require an International Driving Permit (IDP) after exit day, including 12 EU Member States who have confirmed that they will also recognise UK paper licences without an IDP.
In the case of commercial drivers driving in Croatia, a 1968 format IDP will only be required by bus and minibus drivers (category D1 or D licence) under the age of 24, and drivers of large vehicles over 3,500kg (category C licence) under the age of 21.
All drivers will still need to carry their UK driving licence when driving in the EU.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what additional funding has been made available to the DVSA to cope with increased demand for its services in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
DVSA have been allocated £20.34m for Brexit preparations since 2017/18.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 22 of the Government's No-Deal Readiness report, what assessment his Department has made of the total cost to (a) travel operators and (b) consumers of increased regulatory requirements in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
As legislation has been introduced that readies the UK for a no deal exit, an assessment of the impacts of each of these measures has been undertaken. This considers the impacts of the no deal legislation when compared to the status acquis of remaining in the EU.
For measures of less than £5m of cost or benefit to business in any given year, light-touch assessments are conducted. For policies above this threshold, a full impact assessment is undertaken and published. The impacts to all parties are considered in these assessments.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that funding allocated through the Port Infrastructure Resilience and Connectivity competition represents value for money for taxpayers.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The aim of the Port Infrastructure Resilience and Connectivity (PIRC) Fund is to secure, by way of a grant, investment in English maritime ports that improves the resilience of the relevant ports to handle potential disruption from a no deal EU exit on 31 October, and also enhance ports’ resilience capabilities to maximise post-EU exit trade opportunities.
The bids received from ports for grants from the Fund were carefully assessed by officials at the Department for Transport and technical advisers against the following pre-determined criteria:
Delivery date of the project
Capacity & capability to be delivered
Project deliverability & cost
Longer term resilience benefits.
The 16 bids that performed best against these criteria were duly selected for grant funding, as announced by the Secretary of State on 26 September.
The bid assessment process should ensure that bids selected represent value for money. Further, the Department will now be monitoring successful bidders under the terms of grant agreements to make sure that the projects are delivered on time and on budget, so that grants are spent effectively and appropriately. Grants will only be paid in arrears following evidence that the work has been completed. Further, as per best practice for HMG grants, a review will be carried out at an appropriate time to assess the benefits of the scheme.