Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to amend the Air Navigation Directions 2017 to require the Civil Aviation Authority when considering airspace change proposals to undertake an assessment of the available safety data regarding all airspace users and publish a statement on how proposals satisfy the requirements of the operators and owners of all aircraft; and whether the post-implementation review of the airspace change proposal that came into force at Farnborough Airport in February 2020 will include an analysis of safety data.
Answered by Robert Courts
The Air Navigation Directions 2017 are kept under review but there are no immediate plans to amend them.
When undertaking the post-implementation review of the Farnborough Airport airspace change, the Civil Aviation Authority will consider the safety and operational characteristics of this proposal, including available flight data, and then determine whether the proposal has met its regulatory requirements.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people are waiting for a (a) theory and (b) practical driving test; how many of those tests are available; and what steps he has discussed with the DVSA to increase the availability of those tests.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is restoring its testing services with new COVID safe procedures in place to keep people safe and help stop the spread of coronavirus. As the DVSA has been unable to provide its normal level of service for the past seven months, demand for theory and practical driving tests are higher than usual.
As of 20 October 2020:
The DVSA is working with its theory test supplier to extend opening hours and add additional days where local lockdown restrictions allow. There are over 709,000 theory tests available for candidates to book until the end of January 2021, and an additional 151,290 test slots up to the end of February 2021. In remote areas of Scotland, where possible, the DVSA has replaced the Mobile Testing Vehicle (MTV) with alternative venues to provide theory tests, and increased availability of appointments by extending opening/closing times with landlord agreement. In Wales, the DVSA has made an additional 82 theory test slots available (week commencing 19 October) to compensate for the lack of testing in the next fortnight due to the Welsh fire-breaker. It is reducing the levels of potential reschedules by allowing candidates to move tests forward.
The DVSA has also made over 375,000 practical car slots available to the end of January 2021, and an additional 85,000 test slots up to the end of February 2021. From 19 October, driving examiners increased the number of tests they conduct from five to six per day, which should help to reduce waiting times.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2020 to Question 63308 on roads: noise, what plans his Department has for the further development and testing of noise camera technology.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Department’s initial trials of a prototype acoustic camera have concluded, and the results will be published shortly. The outcome of the trial is currently being considered, including what further development would be required to enable the technology to be used for more targeted and efficient enforcement.
Some of the challenges include blending of noise from other vehicles and the surrounding environment, and the effect of changing ambient conditions.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2020 to Question 63308 on roads: noise, what assessment his Department has made of the potential deployment of noise cameras in rural environments which do not have complex traffic and environmental scenarios.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Department recognises that simpler traffic scenarios and road layouts can be found in rural environments but there are still difficulties in measuring vehicle noise in an uncontrolled environment.
Before the acoustic camera can be recommended for wider use, we will need to establish confidence that the camera can detect excessive noise offences to avoid penalising law-abiding motorists and motorcyclists. This will require further development of the instrument.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the results were from his Department's trials of roadside noise cameras in Hampshire and elsewhere; and what plans he has for the further deployment of such cameras.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The acoustic camera trial is complete and preliminary indications are that the device can identify individual vehicles in certain circumstances and assign noise levels to them, but further development is needed to improve accuracy.
The technology has the potential to identify excessively noisy vehicles; however, there are still difficulties in measuring noise in an uncontrolled environment to be overcome. As a result, further development and testing will be required before it could be recommended for wider scale roll out, especially if the camera is to be deployed in urban environments where complex traffic and environmental scenarios are common.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support his Department is providing to the development of hydrogen-powered transport.
Answered by George Freeman
Government is committed to exploring the development of hydrogen as a strategic decarbonised energy carrier, which has potential to support the UK’s efforts to decarbonise transport and meet the 2050 net zero target. The UK is well placed to be a leader in hydrogen and fuel cell powered transportation due to our high-quality engineering and manufacturing capability in relevant supply chains. We are supporting innovation in the hydrogen supply chain from production to end use and investigating potential synergies between transport and other sectors.
In road transport, hydrogen is eligible for support under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation following changes made to the scheme in April 2018. The Office for Low Emission Vehicles and the Advanced Propulsion Centre are funding a wide range of development projects in hydrogen vehicles across technology readiness levels. We are also supporting the technology through the £23m Hydrogen for Transport programme and £2m FCEV fleet support scheme. In addition, the Clean Maritime Plan recognised hydrogen as one of a number of the key fuels on a pathway to zero-emission shipping
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the capacity relief created at Waterloo station from the proposed crossrail 2 project.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Crossrail 2 could provide transformational uplifts in capacity, connectivity, and quality of life for those travelling into and across London from the South West Main Line (SWML). The scheme could help to ease pressure at Waterloo, potentially reducing national rail arrivals by more than 15% across the three-hour weekday morning peak.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what change in the number of passenger miles travelled there has been in the South Western Trains/South Western Railway franchise area in the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes data on the number of rail passenger kilometres by train operator, which has been converted to miles and presented in the table below.
Table 1: Passenger miles on South Western Railway (billions), 2008-09 to 2018-19
Financial year | South Western Railways passenger miles (billions) | Annual Percentage change |
2008-09 | 3.32 |
|
2009-10 | 3.28 | -1.2% |
2010-11 | 3.43 | 4.6% |
2011-12 | 3.55 | 3.5% |
2012-13 | 3.59 | 1.1% |
2013-14 | 3.76 | 4.7% |
2014-15 | 3.87 | 2.9% |
2015-16 | 3.98 | 2.8% |
2016-17 | 3.98 | 0.0% |
2017-18 | 3.69 | -7.3% |
2018-19 | 3.75 | 1.6% |
Passenger kilometres by train operator from 2011-12 are available in Table 12.11 at the following link:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/passenger-rail-usage/
Historic data prior to 2011-12 is available in the ORR’s archived publications at the following link:
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what change in passenger capacity there has been at Waterloo station in the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Waterloo Capacity Enhancement programme has lengthened suburban platforms to accommodate 10-car length trains and provide an additional five platforms at Waterloo by bringing the former International Terminal platforms back into regular use. This has enabled an increase in seat capacity on trains at Waterloo.
The Department for Transport (DfT) publishes data on seat capacity on central London arrivals and departures by rail on a typical autumn weekday. This data was first published for 2011 and the latest published data is for 2018, as presented in the table below.
Table 1: Total seats available on a typical autumn weekday at Vauxhall (for Waterloo) 2011 to 2018
Year | Total seats | Percentage change from previous year |
2011 | 700,825 |
|
2012 | 707,218 | 0.9% |
2013 | 707,138 | 0.0% |
2014 | 717,848 | 1.5% |
2015 | 723,407 | 0.8% |
2016 | 736,370 | 1.8% |
2017 | 737,791 | 0.2% |
2018 | 809,166 | 9.7% |
Notes:
Where a city has more than one station in the city centre along the same route, the seating capacity into the city centre is counted on arrival at the first city centre station the train called at, and the seating capacity departing from the city centre is counted on departure from the final city centre station the train called at. The seating capacity for London Waterloo trains will therefore be the total seating capacity at Vauxhall.
For the production of DfT’s rail crowding statistics, some peak trains are also given a standing allowance to reflect additional standing capacity for shorter journeys. Standing capacity has not been included in the table above.
Train capacity (total seats) for central London arrivals and departures by rail on a typical autumn weekday by station and timeband are available in Table RAI0203 at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/rai02-capacity-and-overcrowding
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has allocated to the South Western Trains/South Western Railways franchise area in the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Between 2008/09 and 2017/18 the department received net funding of £280m from the South West Trains/South Western Railway franchise area. This included £2.3bn in Network Rail grants offset by £2.6bn Premium payments to the Department. ORR data for 2018/19 have yet to be published.