Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driving test examiner posts are vacant in (a) Dunfermline and (b) Kirkcaldy; how many applications the DVSA received for advertised driving test examiner vacancies in each of those areas in each of the last 12 months; and ( how many vacancies were successfully filled in each of those areas in each of those months.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Driving examiners (DE), based at Kirkcaldy driving test centre (DTC), are deployed between Dunfermline DTC and Kirkcaldy DTC to service demand.
There are test slots available to book at Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy within the booking window. There is sufficient resource to service demand at both test centres; therefore, there are no DE vacancies.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driving test appointment slots are available each week in (a) the Dunfermline and (b) the Kirkcaldy Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency test centre.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Based on demand, Dunfermline driving test centre operates 3 days per week, and Kirkcaldy operates 5 days per week.
On average, there are 78 driving test slots available per week at Dunfermline test centre, and 138 at Kirkcaldy. Driving examiners are deployed between the two test centres to balance out driving test waiting times.
The average waiting time for a practical car test at Dunfermline, and Kirkcaldy is 12 weeks, which is less than the current national average. As of 20 March 2023, there were 153 and 425 driving tests available at Dunfermline and Kirkaldy respectively.
Based on customer demand, 60 cities, out of 70, have permanent driving test centres. The ten that do not are listed below, alongside their nearest test centre. The only cities without a driving test centre within 15 miles are Wells and St Davids.
| Name of city that does not have a permanent driving test centre (DTC) | Name of nearest DTC |
| Bath | Bristol Kingswood |
| Brighton and Hove | Lancing |
| Dunfermline | Kirkcaldy |
| Ely | Cambridge (Brookmount Court) |
| Ripon | Knaresborough |
| Salford | Cheetham Hill |
| St Asaph (Llanelwy) | Rhyl |
| St Davids | Pembroke Dock |
| Truro | Camborne |
| Wells | Weston-Super-Mare |
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time for a DVSA practical driving test was in (a) Dunfermline and (b) Kirkcaldy in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Based on demand, Dunfermline driving test centre operates 3 days per week, and Kirkcaldy operates 5 days per week.
On average, there are 78 driving test slots available per week at Dunfermline test centre, and 138 at Kirkcaldy. Driving examiners are deployed between the two test centres to balance out driving test waiting times.
The average waiting time for a practical car test at Dunfermline, and Kirkcaldy is 12 weeks, which is less than the current national average. As of 20 March 2023, there were 153 and 425 driving tests available at Dunfermline and Kirkaldy respectively.
Based on customer demand, 60 cities, out of 70, have permanent driving test centres. The ten that do not are listed below, alongside their nearest test centre. The only cities without a driving test centre within 15 miles are Wells and St Davids.
| Name of city that does not have a permanent driving test centre (DTC) | Name of nearest DTC |
| Bath | Bristol Kingswood |
| Brighton and Hove | Lancing |
| Dunfermline | Kirkcaldy |
| Ely | Cambridge (Brookmount Court) |
| Ripon | Knaresborough |
| Salford | Cheetham Hill |
| St Asaph (Llanelwy) | Rhyl |
| St Davids | Pembroke Dock |
| Truro | Camborne |
| Wells | Weston-Super-Mare |
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many cities do not have a full time DVSA driving test centre.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Based on demand, Dunfermline driving test centre operates 3 days per week, and Kirkcaldy operates 5 days per week.
On average, there are 78 driving test slots available per week at Dunfermline test centre, and 138 at Kirkcaldy. Driving examiners are deployed between the two test centres to balance out driving test waiting times.
The average waiting time for a practical car test at Dunfermline, and Kirkcaldy is 12 weeks, which is less than the current national average. As of 20 March 2023, there were 153 and 425 driving tests available at Dunfermline and Kirkaldy respectively.
Based on customer demand, 60 cities, out of 70, have permanent driving test centres. The ten that do not are listed below, alongside their nearest test centre. The only cities without a driving test centre within 15 miles are Wells and St Davids.
| Name of city that does not have a permanent driving test centre (DTC) | Name of nearest DTC |
| Bath | Bristol Kingswood |
| Brighton and Hove | Lancing |
| Dunfermline | Kirkcaldy |
| Ely | Cambridge (Brookmount Court) |
| Ripon | Knaresborough |
| Salford | Cheetham Hill |
| St Asaph (Llanelwy) | Rhyl |
| St Davids | Pembroke Dock |
| Truro | Camborne |
| Wells | Weston-Super-Mare |
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to agree a reciprocal arrangement for (a) pilot and (b) engineer licences with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Whilst the UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement provisions on aviation safety provide a framework under which arrangements for the reciprocal recognition of personnel licences could be agreed, the EU has indicated that it is not currently minded to enter into discussions on this issue.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment the Government has made of the potential role of maritime decarbonisation in reaching net zero emissions.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The domestic maritime sector falls under the UK’s current national net zero target, and in common with the wider economy will need to be decarbonised by 2050 in order to achieve net zero.
The Department has published extensive research as part of the Clean Maritime Plan on Gov.UK assessing the opportunities and challenges presented by the sector’s transition to net zero, and the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, planned for publication in Spring 2021, will outline our next steps to decarbonise the sector.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of potential new jobs that could be created through decarbonisation of the maritime sector.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2019, the Department published the Clean Maritime Plan, which notified the potential for clean economic growth in the UK as a result of the transition to zero emission shipping.
Alongside the Plan, the Department published an assessment of the potential economic opportunities from low and zero emission shipping. While this does not estimate the number of potential new jobs that could be created through the decarbonisation of the maritime sector, it identifies a large potential global market for the elements of alternative maritime fuel production technologies in which the UK has a particular competitive advantage (for example, upfront design), which could result in economic benefits to the UK of around £360–£510 million per year by the middle of the century.
Certain organisations within the maritime sector have publicly suggested that investment in maritime decarbonisation could create more than 15 thousand jobs as well as tens of thousands of jobs when considering the wider supply chain[1]. Industry research estimates that in 2017 the UK maritime sector as a whole directly supported more than 220 thousand jobs for UK employees[2].
[1] https://www.maritimeuk.org/spending-review/bid/