Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to set National Minimum Standards for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing including a requirement for all taxi and private hire vehicle drivers to undertake disability equality training.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Disability awareness and equality training can provide taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to give disabled passengers the assistance they need. I encourage all licensing authorities to use their existing powers to require drivers to undertaken this in advance of its inclusion in national minimum standards in licensing.
As stated in the Government response to the report by the Chair of the Task and Finish Group on Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing, we will bring forward legislation when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to create a national bus strategy.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Department welcomes the recent Transport Select Committee inquiry into “The Health of the Bus Market”, which has demonstrated that there is considerable interest in a national bus strategy. The Department awaits the Committee’s report and will use its recommendations to inform a decision on the scope and timing of such a strategy.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the status of EU Member State driving licences will be in the event of the UK leaving the EU (a) without a deal and (b) with the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration as currently drafted.
Answered by Chris Grayling
In all EU exit scenarios, the UK will continue to recognise EU driving licences for both visitors and residents as we do currently. We have published this information on gov.uk. This was confirmed in an SI which was passed in October 2018.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will extend the remit of the Rail Ombudsman to include oversight of train ticket selling platforms which are not operated by train operating companies.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Rail Ombudsman is a voluntary scheme established by the franchised GB rail companies who are its members. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is currently consulting on making membership of the Rail Ombudsman scheme mandatory for all the rail companies to which it issues licences.
Online train ticket selling platforms provided by members of the Rail Ombudsman scheme are already within the remit of the Ombudsman. However, online Third Party Retailers (such as the Trainline), which are not directly affiliated to Ombudsman scheme members, are not required to hold licences from the ORR and are not therefore within consideration for mandatory membership.
Nevertheless, the Rail Delivery Group is currently in discussions with Third Party Retailers and their professional body (the Third Party Rail Retailers Association) to explore the possibility of them joining the Rail Ombudsman scheme in due course.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2018 to Question 194792 on Electric Vehicles, if he will publish the internal assessment referred to in that Answer.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government’s internal assessment relies, in part, on commercially sensitive data from manufacturers and cannot be published for that reason.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to replace the service on a bus route when an operator removes it; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The bus market in England, outside London, is deregulated and most services are provided on a commercial basis by private operators. Where there is not enough demand for a bus route to be commercially viable in its own right all local authorities have powers to subsidise bus services.
Local bus services have to be registered with the Traffic Commissioner. When an operator wants to vary or cancel a registered bus service it must provide relevant local authorities with a copy of the application at least 28 days before it makes the application to the Traffic Commissioner. Once the application has been submitted to the Traffic Commissioner the service can be varied or cancelled after 42 days, or less in certain prescribed circumstances if agreed by the Traffic Commissioner.
This system provides local authorities with time to consider the implications of a service variation or cancellation and in particular whether they wish to procure and subsidise a replacement service.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he made an assessment of the potential effect of reducing incentives for plug-in hybrid and electric cars on the number of purchases of those vehicles before taking the decision to reduce those incentives.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Since 2011, the plug-in car grant has provided a discount to the price of over 170,000 cars, and disbursed over £0.7 billion to support the early market for ultra low emission vehicles. Based on internal assessments made before the change to grant rates in October 2018, we expect sales of ultra low emission cars to continue at similar levels in 2019 to those seen in 2018.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of reducing incentives for plug-in (a) hybrid and (b) electric cars on the number of purchases of those vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Based on our internal assessment, following the change in grant rates we expect sales of ultra low emission cars to continue at similar levels in 2019 to those seen this year.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department holds discussions with Satnav companies on the suitability of roads for certain vehicles due weight and height restrictions.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department has had no such recent discussions.
The Department is aware that manufacturers produce special satnav devices for lorries, in order to provide them with routing information appropriate to their vehicle.
The Government has invested £3 million to help create a digital road map, with one aim being to ensure traffic keeps moving efficiently and safely on suitable routes. It includes information such as road widths, which could be used in satnavs to improve the quality and accuracy of routing advice. The map is available online at: www.os.uk/highways.
Routing guidance provided by satnavs should only ever be considered as advisory. It is for individual device owners to ensure that they use their satnavs responsibly and with a proper understanding of their limitations. It is for individuals to determine the best route for their journey.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the increase in traffic in Bristol that will result from the removal of the Severn Bridge tolls.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Following the Government announcement on 21 July 2017 to abolish tolls by the end of 2018 the Government has not undertaken any further modelling on the impact of abolishing the current tolls on traffic volumes in Bristol.
Previous modelling work was undertaken on the impact of removing tolls compared to the 2014 toll level, rather than comparing specifically with toll levels either when the decision to abolish tolls was made or at the end of the concession period. That modelling also covers a different time period to the option being delivered and so there will be differences from actual impacts. That modelling did show that there would be an increase in traffic as a result of abolishing the tolls and that this would result in approximately 16,000 extra trips per day either into or out of Bristol in 2022. This is equivalent to 8,000 two-way journeys per day.
Highways England are conducting modelling work to look at the impacts of moving from the current level of tolls to no tolls at the end of the year.