Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders on improving step- free access at train stations in Northumberland.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department continues to work closely with Network Rail, train operators and local authorities to improve step-free access at stations in Northumberland.
For example all of the Northumberland Line’s new stations have been designed to be fully accessible. A number of stations in Northumberland have also benefitted from funding under the Access for All programme, including Morpeth and Alnmouth railway stations.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders on improving step- free access for train stations in the North East.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department continues to work closely with Network Rail, train operators and local authorities to improve step-free access at stations across the North East.
For example, the Transpennine Route Upgrade will provide step free access at 22 stations. A number of stations in the region have been made accessible with funding from the Access for All programme, including Northallerton and Middlesborough railway stations.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data her Department holds on the number of electric charging points in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle, (d) the North East and (e) England.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The below table presents the number of public charging devices as of 1st October 2025 in Hexham constituency, Northumberland, Newcastle upon Tyne, the North East, and England.
Area | Number of public charging devices, 1st October 2025 |
Hexham constituency | 237 |
Northumberland | 611 |
Newcastle upon Tyne | 277 |
North East | 2,698 |
England | 74,115 |
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to electric vehicle charging facilities in the North East.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable and accessible charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle (EV). Public chargepoint numbers are increasing and, as of 1 November 2025, Government and industry have supported the installation of 86,798 publicly available charging devices, up 22% on this time last year.
The North East region was allocated over £25m through the Government’s Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund to leverage significant private investment and increase the number of local public chargepoints across the region.
The £25 million EV Pavement Channel Grant is also available, which is intended to empower local authorities to adopt pavement channels as part of their local charging solutions. The North East was allocated over £1.6m to support the installation of pavement channels alongside public chargepoints.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data her Department holds on the number of electric vehicles currently registered in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle, (d) the North East and (e) England.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
At the end of June 2025, the number of licensed vehicles that were battery electric was 3,313 in Newcastle, 5,220 in Northumberland, 35,438 in the North East and 1,464,860 in England.
We do not readily hold the respective figure for Hexham constituency.
It is important to note, vehicles are allocated to geographic location according to the postcode of the registered keeper. The address does not necessarily reflect where the vehicle is located. This is especially true for large fleets kept by companies involved with vehicle management, leasing or rentals.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders on tackling harassment on public transport against women and girls in the North East.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department is working across government and with partners, including the British Transport Police (BTP), the transport industry and local authorities to ensure that everyone feels and is safe when travelling. And, as part of that, I meet with a range of stakeholders from across the country to discuss issues across my portfolio, including the safety of women and girls on public transport.
Last month, the Department and Greater Manchester Combined Authority jointly hosted a Safer Streets, Safer Transport Summit which brought together representatives from across the transport industry, Government, local authorities (including the North East Combined Authority), the third sector and policing to commit to taking action against anti-social behaviour (ASB) and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).
As part of the Government’s aims to reduce VAWG by half over the next decade, the Department has an ambitious, evidence-based programme of work to help tackle VAWG on transport. This includes measures in the Bus Services Act 2025 such as training on how to recognise and respond to incidents of criminal and anti-social behaviour. The Act also enables all Local Transport Authorities to introduce byelaws to tackle ASB on vehicles, as well as within and at bus-related infrastructure (for example bus stations).
The Department supports BTP’s zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment and sexual offences. This includes using a range of policing techniques to pursue offenders on the rail network to ensure it remains a safe environment and encourage reporting of incidents via BTP’s 61016 text number or 999 in an emergency.
BTP officers in the North East attend the local Safer Transport Regional Group and the Violence Against Women and Girls on Transport Partnership Working Group, strengthening collaboration with partners and focusing joint efforts on preventing these offences.
BTP also deliver numerous public campaigns to increase VAWG reporting across the network including in the North East. The Rail Delivery Group also delivers its ‘zero tolerance’ campaign, which is aimed at educating people about the different types of sexual harassment and encouraging reporting to the BTP or anonymously to crime stoppers.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders in the North East on developments to Active Travel England.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Active Travel England has a key role in the planning system as a statutory consultee for development management via Schedule 4 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.
As part of this statutory role, Active Travel England officials regularly offer to hold discussions with local planning authorities, developers and local highway authorities.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many an what proportion of cars were powered by electric in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle, (d) the North East and (e) England in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
At the end of June 2025, the number of licensed cars that were battery electric was 3,119 (2.9%) in Newcastle, 4,955 (2.9%) in Northumberland, 30,928 (2.5%) in the North East and 1,355,127 (4.7%) in England.
We do not readily hold the respective figure for Hexham constituency.
It is important to note, vehicles are allocated to geographic location according to the postcode of the registered keeper. The address does not necessarily reflect where the vehicle is located. This is especially true for large fleets kept by companies involved with vehicle management, leasing or rentals.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric charging points have been established through Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funding.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In total, the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, alongside significant private investment, is expected to support the installation of at least 100,000 chargepoints across England.
The majority of LEVI projects have now been approved to go to delivery, the first contracts have been signed between local authorities and chargepoint operators, and the first projects have now started to install chargepoints. Data on chargepoints installed under LEVI will be available in due course. Installation rates will increase as more projects enter delivery, with installation expected to continue over the coming years.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to increase active travel in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) the North East, (d) Newcastle, and (e) England.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
On 12 February, the Department for Transport and Active Travel England (ATE) announced almost £300 million of funding to boost walking, wheeling and cycling with £222.5 million awarded to local authorities across England. This includes over £9.3 million of funding in 2024/25 to 2025/26 for the North- East Combined Authority (NECA). It will be for NECA to decide on priorities for investment across its local transport network.
ATE also funds a range of wider projects to enable more active travel, including Bikeability cycle training, Walk to School Outreach and Bike Bike Revival activities. ATE also provides funding to Sustrans to maintain and upgrade the National Cycle Network, which includes routes in the North-East.