Oral Answers to Questions

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Wednesday 13th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. He talks about Liverpool and Manchester. Part of the condition of the expansion of Heathrow airport and the construction of the third runway relates to the protection of 15% of slots for regional airports around the UK, and Liverpool and Manchester stand to benefit significantly from that.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

6. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on the potential effect on community transport providers in Wales of changes to the way in which section 19 and 22 permits are issued.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Stuart Andrew)]

Community transport operators provide vital services to the people of Wales. The Government have recently consulted on how to align domestic law on section 19 and 22 permits with EU legal obligations, as well as updating existing guidance on permits. We are now analysing the responses and will respond in due course.

[Jessica Morden]

As the Minister said, community transport operators in Wales have many valuable functions, including helping isolated people get to the shops, doctors, friends and family. They will be hit very hard by Government changes in terms of extra licensing and certification. The Community Transport Association says that this will affect 95% of operators, so what will the Minister do to help the Department for Transport listen and make changes?

[Stuart Andrew]

I completely agree with the hon. Lady that community transport operators provide vital services, particularly in Wales, where there are an estimated 2 million passenger journeys over a total of 6 million miles. But we do have to align ourselves with the EU regulations, so we are consulting widely and looking at the responses in detail to ensure that we come up with the right answers.