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Written Question
Motor Vehicles: Registration
Monday 6th March 2023

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to help ensure that changes to the registered details of vehicles are processed swiftly.

Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The quickest and easiest way to notify changes to vehicle registration details is by using the DVLA’s online service. However, all DVLA vehicle services are operating within normal turnaround times and without delay.


Written Question
Electric Vehicles: Charging Points
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what public funding is available in Somerset to support the expansion of the electric vehicle charging network.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Government is accelerating the rollout of public EV charging infrastructure across the country by providing funding through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund and the Rapid Charging Fund (RCF).

Two local authorities in Somerset have already received funding from the ORCS scheme:

  • West Somerset and Taunton Council have received £136,000.
  • Mendip District Council have received £322,500.

Other local authorities in this region are still able to apply to this fund.

The LEVI fund will support local authorities to work with industry and transform the availability of charging infrastructure for drivers without off-street parking. The RCF will future-proof the electrical capacity at strategic locations to support ultra-rapid charging on route.

OZEV also offers a range of grants to support home, workplace and destination charging. This includes the EV Chargepoint Grant for owner occupiers of flats, renters and landlords, as well as for businesses through the Workplace Charging Scheme.


Written Question
Bus Services
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support his Department is providing to Local Authorities to help them achieve their public transport objectives for bus services.

Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The Government is providing over £1billion to 34 local transport authorities (LTAs), including combined authorities, to support the delivery of their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs). Additionally, over £780m has been allocated through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) that will directly fund bus infrastructure.

In addition, £23m bus capacity funding was allocated to all LTAs in 2021/22 to support the development and delivery of their BSIPs and Enhanced Partnerships. A further £11m has been provided in 2022/23 for those LTAs that did not receive BSIP funding.

Since 1 January, the majority of single bus journeys in England outside London have been capped at £2 thanks to Government support via the Bus Fare Cap Grant. The initial phase of the scheme, through to 31 March, is backed by up to £60 million. On 17 February, we announced that we will provide up to £75 million to extend the £2 bus fare cap until 30 June 2023.

We also announced a further, three-month extension to the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) to continue protecting vital bus services until 30 June 2023. This takes total Government funding that has been provided to over £2bn in emergency and recovery funding to the sector since March 2020 to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.

The Government pays over £200 million directly to bus operators every year through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) to help keep fares down and maintain a larger network than would otherwise be possible. The Government also provides £42 million annually in BSOG funding to Local Transport Authorities.


Written Question
Cycling and Walking: Finance
Monday 5th December 2022

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of additional support for the Active Travel fund.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Department’s ministers and officials have regular discussions with their counterparts in His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) on active travel funding and other matters.


Written Question
Large Goods Vehicle Drivers: Conditions of Employment and Pay
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made about the adequacy of (a) wages and (b) facilities including (i) overnight parking, (ii) truck stops and (iii) service station amenities for HGV drivers in transit.

Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The Government is aware that levels of HGV driver pay are rising and some operators are offering more options for flexible working and varied working patterns. It is estimated that gross weekly median wages for HGV drivers have increased by 8% between 2019 and 2021, more than thegross weekly median wages for all UK employees.

We’re committed to improving facilities for HGV drivers – with plans for investment in improving roadside facilities in England. Details will be published in the coming months.


Written Question
Large Goods Vehicle Drivers: Labour Turnover and Recruitment
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has made to improve the (a) recruitment of and (b) the retention of HGV drivers.

Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The Government has invested £34 million to train up to 11,000 more people to become HGV drivers, provided funding support for apprenticeships, and the Department of Work and Pensions has used the Job Centre Plus network to support appropriate jobseekers to train as drivers. The Government also has plans to invest in improving roadside facilities in England, details of which will be published in the coming months.


Written Question
Large Goods Vehicles: Global Navigation Satellite Systems
Monday 17th October 2022

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals on enforcing the use of authorised commercial satellite navigation systems in heavy goods vehicles.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The Government currently has no plans to mandate the use of satellite navigation equipment.


Written Question
Large Goods Vehicles: Events Industry
Tuesday 1st March 2022

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the number of specialist event haulage vehicles, as defined in his Department's recent consultation on Support for specialist event hauliers working on cross border tours, in the UK since January 2019.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

The Department for Transport does not collect data on the different sub-sectors of haulage operators through the vehicle operator licence system, so no assessment of trends in the number of specialist event haulage vehicles is available. The Department is carefully considering responses to its recent consultation on support for specialist hauliers working on cross border tours and will set out proposed next steps in the coming weeks.


Written Question
Large Goods Vehicles: Events Industry
Tuesday 1st March 2022

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of specialist event haulage vehicles, as defined in his Department's recent consultation on Support for specialist event hauliers working on cross border tours, in the UK in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

The Department for Transport does not generate annual estimates of the number of specialist haulage vehicles under the draft definition in its recent consultation on support for specialist hauliers working on cross border tours.


Written Question
Roads: South West
Tuesday 25th June 2019

Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary for transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on growth in the South West of upgrading the A303/A30/A358 corridor.

Answered by Michael Ellis

The first Road Investment Strategy (RIS1), published in December 2014, recognised the importance of the A303/A358/A30 corridor and announced the Government’s intention to upgrade all remaining sections of the A303 between the M3 and the A358 to dual carriageway standard, together with creating a dual carriageway link from the M5 at Taunton to the A303, as part of a long-term commitment to creating a new high quality dual carriageway road to the South West.

Work on this long-term commitment is already underway, with Highways England in the process of developing three major improvements during RIS1: the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down (Stonehenge Tunnel), A303 Sparkford to Ilchester dualling, and A358 Taunton to Southfields dualling.

The Government intends that subsequent Road Investment Strategies will fund the remaining improvements. The Department is using the evidence it has gathered through three years of research and public engagement to determine an affordable and deliverable investment plan for the second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2) that will be published in late 2019. Many proposals have been received for enhancement schemes to be included in RIS2 – competition for the available funding is therefore very strong.

The research phase has involved engagement with other Government departments such as the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Treasury and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy department. We are taking the findings of the local authority partners’ Economic impact study into account in the decision-making and the Government’s objectives for RIS2 include spreading economic growth across the country.

Each individual scheme to improve the A303/A358/A30 corridor is being considered on its own merits, including an assessment of wider economic impacts where appropriate. Although the importance of the corridor for economic growth in the South West is already understood and being acted upon, no recent estimate has been made by the Department of the potential effect on economic growth in the South West of the planned improvements.