Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with British Airways on reducing the number of cancelled flights.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The resilience of the UK aviation sector is key to its success. As UK aviation operates predominately in the private sector, it is the responsibility of industry to ensure appropriate contingency plans are in place to minimise potential disruption and cancellations.
My officials regularly engage with the aviation sector to discuss strategies in place to minimise disruption and cancellations and ensure resilience exists across the network to deliver for their customers. This involves regular communication with airlines, including British Airways, airports, ground handling agents and industry bodies.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve road safety outside schools.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The safety of our roads is an absolute priority for this Government.
Local authorities have a range of traffic management measures available to them to help improve safety outside schools including reducing speed limits, traffic calming, and introduction of a School Street where appropriate. On 19 November 2024 Active Travel England and the Department for Transport published joint School Streets Guidance. The guidance is available at School Streets: how to set up and manage a scheme - GOV.UK
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve (a) road resurfacing and (b) other infrastructure completion times.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This year, the Government made an additional £500 million available for local highway authorities to maintain their highway network, bringing the total to a record investment of nearly £1.6 billion. A quarter of the additional funding is contingent upon local highway authorities complying with certain criteria aimed at driving best practice and continual improvement in highways maintenance.
The Government also supports the rollout of lane rental schemes. This allows highway authorities to charge up to £2,500 per day for works on the busiest roads at peak times. This encourages quicker completion, off-peak working, or relocating works to reduce disruption on our roads. From January 2026, authorities will be able to use 50% of lane rental revenue for highway maintenance.
Highway authorities can issue overrun charges of up to £10,000 per day for works that exceed agreed timeframes. Currently these charges can only be applied on weekdays, however we are making changes to allow these charges to apply on weekends and bank holidays.
Finally, the Government has set out a new approach to infrastructure in the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, which was published in June 2025. This will restore confidence and drive economic growth by providing stability and certainty, and improve how infrastructure projects, like transport, are planned and delivered. We are working closely with HMT to ensure lessons learned from transport projects, such as set out in the James Stewart Review (published in June 2025) are incorporated into future priorities. The Department has accepted all recommendations from this Review and is already taking steps to implement them.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with her counterparts in Northern Ireland on electric vehicle charging provision.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My officials regularly engage with the Department for Infrastructure on zero emission vehicle (ZEV) initiatives, including charging infrastructure provision. Minister Lightwood met the Northern Ireland Minister for Infrastructure in April during the British-Irish Council meeting, and I met with the Northern Ireland Minister for Infrastructure earlier this month as part of the Interministerial Group for Transport. Both including discussions on the ZEV transition.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with local councils on ensuring that there are sufficient road grit boxes for road users to use in winter 2025-26.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Responsibility for winter road maintenance, including grit boxes, is a devolved matter. As such this answer relates only to England.
Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 places a duty on highway authorities to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice.
It is for local highway authorities to determine what the most appropriate measures are to achieve this, based on local circumstances.