Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department set targets for the DVLA to ensure that people seeking to apply or reapply for a driving licence for reasons of (a) ill health and (b) following a ban are dealt with expeditiously.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The DVLA aims to complete 90% of medical cases within 90 working days and to process applications from those previously banned from driving within 15 working days.
The length of time it takes to deal with an application for a driving licence following ill health depends on the medical condition involved, and whether further information is required from medical professionals. In the last financial year, it took an average of 32 working days for the DVLA to make a licensing decision on all medical applications.
The DVLA writes to disqualified drivers 56 days before their ban is due to expire to invite them to reapply for their driving licence.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to allocate funding to Stroud railway station to enable it to be accessible to people with disabilities.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
We are committed to improving access to the rail network and we have made a further £300m available to extend our Access for All programme, which delivers accessible routes at selected stations. The industry was asked to put forward nominations for this funding by 16 November. Stroud station was one of more than 300 stations nominated.
I plan to announce successful stations in April 2019, and whilst I cannot guarantee that Stroud will be included in the programme, I can guarantee it will be given proper consideration and I have noted the Honourable Member’s support.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on motorists operating CCTV from their vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
It is a legal requirement for drivers to exercise proper control of their vehicle and to ensure that their vision is not obscured. The Official Highway Code advises drivers to avoid distractions.
Local licensing authorities can already require the installation of CCTV in all taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) and a number already do so.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether guarantees are in place to ensure that self-service ticket machines provide the cheapest available tickets for the time of day and week on which a journey is to be made.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Office of Rail and Road has asked all train companies to introduce a voluntary ‘TVM Price Guarantee’ whereby they commit to refund the additional costs where the passenger could have purchased a cheaper ticket. This year all 17 train companies that use TVMs now have a TVM Price Guarantee in place. Train companies bidding for new franchises are asked to provide information about any price guarantees in place, which is taken into account in the way bids are assessed, and are required to adopt the Rail Delivery Group’s TVM Design Guidelines for new and upgraded ticket machines.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans are in place to ensure that people who do not have access to the internet are not adversely affected by the operation of the registration process for change of ownership of vehicles through the DVLA.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Motorists can notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) of a change of vehicle keeper by completing and posting the new keeper section of the vehicle registration certificate.
Those who use the paper route to notify the DVLA of changes to their vehicle record will receive a new vehicle registration certificate on the same timescale as those who notify the DVLA digitally.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of the introduction of a new sentencing regime for motoring offences involving (a) cycling fatalities, (b) serious injuries to cyclists and (c) physical assaults on cyclists.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government response to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation ‘Driving offences and penalties relating to causing death or serious injury’ was published in October last year. This confirmed proposals to increase the maximum penalty for causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs from 14 years’ imprisonment to life, and to create a new offence of causing serious injury by careless driving. These proposals for changes in the law will be brought forward as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many current contracts his Department has with Serco; and what the (a) value, (b) start date and (c) end date of each of those contracts is.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Since January 2011, details of central government contracts above the value of £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts published prior to 26 February 2015 can be viewed at:
https://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive
Those published after 26 February 2015 can be viewed at:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many cancellations GWR has made in the last six months for which figures are available; and for how many of those cancellations the reason cited was driver unavailability.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The latest figures published by the ORR for cancellations for the last 7 periods, can be found on the ORR website with the number of cancellations and separately the number of trains planned:
http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/65f0615f-ba00-40cd-a7d3-daec5d7a11db
http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/cc1348a8-e646-4088-aafa-564928d8589b
In regards to the second point raised, the Department does not hold that level of detail.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the age at which each issuing local authority offers older person's bus passes for (a) women and (b) men.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Eligibility for the statutory scheme is the same in all local authorities throughout England and is currently rising for men and women in line with the equalisation of the retirement age for both at sixty-five.
However, Local Authorities have powers to implement discretionary enhancements to the statutory concession, including offering a concession to older people below the eligible pension age.
The Department’s annual concessionary travel survey monitors the availability of such discretionary concessions, and the most recent dataset can be found on the Department’s statistics page on the GOV.UK website at:
http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/bus08-concessionary-travel/