Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of delays to train services in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department meets regularly with West Midlands Trains to discuss, amongst other issues, train performance. In addition, we have recently required the franchise to deliver a plan to improve train performance. We anticipate receiving this plan by the end of November and this will detail how performance will improve and return to the levels required under the Franchise Agreement.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve rail infrastructure to ensure that services are not cancelled during adverse weather.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
We are spending a record £48 billion on the railway over Control Period 6 with a focus on making Britain’s railway more reliable and focused on passengers’ needs. The plans cover the five years from 1 April 2019. This represents a 17% increase in renewals spend from CP5 which will help cut delays caused by infrastructure failures, such as track defects.
This will allow Network Rail to be prepared for extreme weather and plan ahead to effectively minimise disruption. This will be achieved through a range of actions, including performing drainage work to reduce flood risk and working with specialist forecasters to keep Network Rail informed of severe weather risks and allow controllers to act.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
What steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) safety and (b) regulation of taxis.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
My Department will shortly issue statutory guidance to licensing authorities on how they should use their extensive existing powers to protect taxi and private hire vehicle passengers. Next year revised best practice guidance will be issued recommending ways that licensing authorities can use those same powers to enable the trade the thrive and deliver the services passengers demand.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to issue new guidance on shared spaces.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Following the commitment in the Inclusive Transport Strategy, the Department is working with Transport Scotland on the research into inclusive street design. This is a collaborative project between the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland, which began in August and is scheduled to complete early next year. Following the conclusion of the research, we will consider the recommendations, and therefore how best to update our guidance.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve the punctuality of trains.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Government takes train punctuality seriously and understands it is crucial to passengers and freight users. That is why Government agreed a Network Rail settlement for England and Wales of £47.9bn for Control Period 6 specifically aimed at maintaining and renewing the railway to improve reliability and punctuality for all rail users. We recognise performance on the railway has been unsatisfactory, and passengers have not always received the level of service they expected. While performance has improved recently, the new Transport Secretary understands passengers need the certainty of reliable journeys, and is determined to work with industry to improve performance. We continue to monitor the performance of our franchised operators closely to press for improvements for passengers.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to tackle emissions from aviation.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government recognises that climate change is one of the most urgent and pressing challenges we face and we are working to ensure the UK takes a leading role in tackling it.
On 12 June 2019, the Government announced a 2050 net zero greenhouse gas emissions target for the UK. This announcement shows the UK’s steadfast commitment to tackling climate change and we recognise that aviation has a crucial part to play.
The UK will continue to lead the way to secure a solution which reflects the truly international nature of these sectors. It is vital that we find an answer that does not simply displace emissions elsewhere across the world. We will continue to provide for international aviation and shipping emissions as we do now via headroom within our existing carbon budgets. We are minded to include these targets in legislation subject to future discussions in the International Maritime Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization.
The Government will propose a long-term vision for UK aviation carbon emissions reduction and a pathway to achieve this by 2050 in its Aviation 2050 white paper due to be published later this year.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase access to public transport for people who have difficulty climbing stairs.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government is committed to ensuring that disabled people and passengers with reduced mobility have the same access to transport and opportunities to travel as everyone else.
In July 2018, the Department for Transport launched the Inclusive Transport Strategy which includes a commitment to extend a programme of accessibility improvements at rail stations (known as Access for All) with an additional £300m of funding for the 2019-2024 period. Access for All funding has led to new accessible, step-free routes at over 200 stations. This new funding will allow for similar improvements to be made at a further 73 stations.
Additionally, by 1st January 2020, all rolling stock in passenger service must comply with modern accessibility standards. These standards include vehicle access and egress, including the use of manual boarding ramps.
In the case of buses, the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations have revolutionised bus travel for disabled passengers, with around 97% of buses in Great Britain now incorporating a designated space and boarding facilities for wheelchair users, priority seating and other features to help disabled people board, alight and travel in comfort and safety. The Government continues to work with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to ensure that enforcement action targets non-compliance effectively and that appropriate action is taken where it is identified.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of traffic offences in each year since 2010.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Department has not made a formal assessment of the trends in the level of traffic offences. The Department works closely with the Home Office and the Police in understanding what more we can do to assist them in prosecuting road traffic offenders.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the benefits of cycling to (a) physical health, (b) mental health and (c) the environment.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Department published a rapid evidence assessment on investing in cycling and walking in April 2017 which considered a wide range of benefits from cycling and walking, including health and the environment. The Department has also worked in collaboration with Public Health England on the November 2018 publication Cycling and walking for individual and population health benefits and Sport England on the active travel and physical activity review published in May 2019.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the laws relating to traffic offences are effectively enforced.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The responsibility for the enforcement of criminal law, including traffic offences, is a matter for the Police who work under Home Office guidance. Decisions on how the Police deploy resources is a matter for the Police and Crime Commissioners and the Chief Constables for each police force.
The detailed statistics on prosecutions and convictions for motoring offences between 2010 and 2017 have been fairly stable. However there has been an increase in Police using education courses under the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS) from 467,601 courses in 2010 to 1,445,817 in 2018.
The National Speed Awareness Course impact evaluation, published in 2017, found that participation in the course was more effective at preventing speed reoffending than fines and penalty points over a period of 3 years following the initial offer to attend. The National Speed Awareness Course is now offered by most police forces in England and Wales.
In March 2018, we provided a grant of £370,000 to PACTS (Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety) to run a competition to encourage the development of mobile evidential breath testing instruments which will meet the Home Office type approval requirements. Phase 2 of this competition closes at the end of June 2019.
The DfT has recently invested £100,000 to support the digital capacity of the police to enable them to handle dash and helmet cam evidence in respect of road traffic offences.