Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the home-to-school services exemption to the Public Services Vehicle Accessibility Regulations beyond 31 March 2022.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Bus and coach operators have already had many years to comply with the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000, and I am disappointed that some operators in the rail replacement and home-to-school sectors are still unable to provide relevant services using compliant vehicles.
When writing to the industry in July to offer further temporary exemptions to 31 March 2022 to enable essential services to operate, the buses Minister Baroness Vere was clear that to be eligible for future (qualified) exemptions beyond 31 March 2022, operators would need to demonstrate steps they have taken to comply with the Regulations.
We are finalising the scope and eligibility criteria for such exemptions and will provide further information in due course.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Red, amber and green list rules for entering England, updated on 8 June 2021, (a) what constitutes as mixing in relation to transit stops and (b) whether a passenger who follows social distancing rules at all times while making a transit stop would be considered to have mixed.
Answered by Robert Courts
Only passengers who are kept separated from other travellers at transit stops, for example on an aircraft, in a train carriage, or in a separate area of a terminal, are considered not to have transited through that country.
The Government expects all operators to manage the risks of COVID-19 transmission. The guidance is clear that social distancing of with risk mitigations should be observed where possible. Where social distancing is not possible, operators are advised to carry out a risk assessment and implement appropriate risk controls. For example, wearing a face covering can play a role in helping us to protect each other.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish (a) the outcome of the Creating a plan to decarbonise transport call for ideas and (b) the Government’s transport decarbonisation plan.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The “call for ideas” was one of several routes for stakeholders to provide their views on decarbonising transport. We received over 7,000 responses from the public all of which have fed into the development of the Transport Decarbonisation Plan. We will be publishing the Plan shortly.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) steps the Government is taking to ensure the safety of blind and partially sighted people at train stations and (b) assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of making tactile edging on platforms mandatory.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Operators involved in the management of stations are responsible for ensuring the safety of all passengers on the premises. The Office of Rail and Roads (ORR) is the safety regulator of Britain’s railway and can take enforcement action if these standards are not met.
There are clear safety and accessibility benefits of installing platform edge tactiles. Whenever the industry installs, replaces or renews platform infrastructure they must install appropriate tactile surfaces. Network Rail has also been asked to develop a programme to ensure all platforms have them installed as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the feasibility of introducing part month vehicle tax refunds.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
It has been a long-standing feature that vehicle excise duty is issued from the first of the month and refunds are issued for complete months remaining. Issuing vehicle excise duty from a date other than the first of the month and refunding for part months would add a large amount of administrative complexity to the vehicle excise duty system. There are no plans to change the current arrangements.