Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle the shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers who provide (a) refuse collection and (b) other local services.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government has taken 32 specific measures to deal with the shortage of HGV drivers across all sectors including refuse collection and other local services. These measures include funding for HGV driving apprenticeships such as the Category C Urban Driver standard, Skills Bootcamps to train 11,000 more drivers, and support for jobseekers.
In addition, we have taken steps to increase DVSA’s capacity for HGV driving tests to 3,200 per week, an increase of over 100% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Test capacity now exceeds demand. Despite the increase in vocational driving licence applications and licence renewals there are no delays in processing, and all vocational provisional licences and licence renewals are being processed within five working days, unless further medical checks are required.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will extend the date on driving theory tests due to expire in 2021.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place for road safety reasons, to ensure a candidate’s knowledge is current. This validity period is set in legislation and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.
It is important road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point a person drives unsupervised for the first time. Those with theory test certificates expiring now will have taken their test in early 2019. Since then, they have been unable to take lessons and practice for long periods of time, and not at all during recent lockdowns. It is difficult to maintain knowledge and understanding of driving theory at the level required during that time without being able to put it into practice. Research suggests that this would be particularly harmful for hazard perception skills, a key factor in road safety.
Ensuring new drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the training of new drivers, who are disproportionality represented in casualty statistics. Taking all this into consideration, the decision has been made not to extend theory test certificates and learners will need to pass another theory test if their certificate expires.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what effect the Transport Decarbonisation Plan will have on the Green Jobs Taskforce launched on 12 November 2020; and when he last discussed the low carbon economy and employment levels in public transport with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Green Jobs Taskforce forms part of the government’s ambitious plan to build back greener and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We will set out measures needed to reach net zero for transport in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan. Department for Transport and Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy ministers have regular discussions on a range of issues, including tackling climate change and delivering our net zero commitments.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how long the average commute to work is for employees in (a) Wansbeck constituency, (b) the North East, (c) England and (c) the UK.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The average commute to work distance for employees in (a) Wansbeck constituency, (b) the North East, (c) England is shown in the table below. DfT do not routinely collect the required data to provide information for (d) the UK.
| Average commute (miles) |
(a) Wansbeck constituency2 | 11.4 |
(b) the North East1 | 8.4 |
(c) England1 | 9.0 |
1 These figures are based on the Department’s 2017 and 2018 National Travel Survey for English residents travelling in Great Britain.
2 Based on 2011 Census data published by the Office for National Statistics. Population is all usual residents aged 16 to 74 in employment the week before the census.