Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Road Traffic Act 1988 to require drivers to stop and report accidents involving cats.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no plans to amend section 170 of the Road Traffic Act to make it mandatory for drivers to report road collisions involving cats.
Although there is no obligation to report all collisions with animals on roads, Rule 286 of The Highway Code advises drivers to report any collisions involving an animal to the police, and if possible, they should make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals and advise them of the situation.
Since June 2024, all cats in England over 20 weeks of age must be microchipped and registered on a compliant database, unless exempt or free-living. This will make it easier for National Highways and local authorities to reunite cats with their keepers.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of increasing the permitted weight of electric HGVs on the construction sector.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department keeps vehicle regulations, including maximum permitted weight limits, under review, to determine whether they remain appropriate during the transition towards zero emission HGVs. No assessment which focuses exclusively on vehicles used in the construction sector is planned.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with East Midlands Railways on the feasibility of increasing the frequency of train services to and from Spalding.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
East Midlands Railway’s proposed new regional timetable for December 2025 includes one additional service every weekday and four additional services every Saturday calling at Spalding.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of food procured by her Department is sourced in the UK.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
To date the Government has not held information on where publicly procured food is sourced from.
Starting right away, for the first time ever, this government will review the food currently bought in the public sector to determine the standards that it is meeting, where it is bought from and look to introduce monitoring for transparency and accountability within those supply chains to ultimately get the best food for the consumer.
This work will be a significant first step to inform any future changes to public sector food procurement policies as we want to help make it an equal playing field for British producers to bid into the £5 billion spent each year on public sector catering contracts.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she plans to take to improve road safety in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in the 2025-2026 financial year.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government allocates Integrated Transport Block (ITB) funding to local authorities such as Lincolnshire County Council, which is used for a variety of local transport initiatives such as road safety improvements. ITB allocations for 2025/26 for Lincolnshire County Council and other authorities will be announced shortly. This will enable councils to decide how best to use the available funding; the Department does not get involved in local authority decision making of this sort.
On local highway maintenance funding, all local authority allocations for highway maintenance block capital funding in 2025/26, including for Lincolnshire County Council, were announced by the Secretary of State for Transport on 20 December 2024 and are published on Gov.uk. Lincolnshire County Council will be receiving an uplift of over £16.2 million compared to the current financial year, taking its total funding for the year to over £60 million if they meet the incentive element requirements, due to be published shortly.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driving test instructors have left their position in each year since 2018.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) approves people to be driving instructors and motorcycle trainers.
DVSA publishes driving instructor and motorcycle instructor register data on GOV.UK. This includes data on the numbers of approved driving instructors (ADI) and shows the number of ADIs joining or leaving the register, by reason, per financial year.
The attached excel document shows how many ADIs left the ADI register for the financial year 2017/18 to the financial year to date, 2024/25. This includes data on ADIs whose licence lapsed, ADIs who resigned their licence, and ADIs who were removed from the register (Registrar's decision).
The same document also includes how many ADIs were added to the ADI register for the same period. This includes data on new ADI registrations, ADIs who renewed their licence (renewals), and ADIs who re-registered after a period of time off the register (Re-registration).
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many new driving test instructors were approved in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) approves people to be driving instructors and motorcycle trainers.
DVSA publishes driving instructor and motorcycle instructor register data on GOV.UK. This includes data on the numbers of approved driving instructors (ADI) and shows the number of ADIs joining or leaving the register, by reason, per financial year.
The attached excel document shows how many ADIs left the ADI register for the financial year 2017/18 to the financial year to date, 2024/25. This includes data on ADIs whose licence lapsed, ADIs who resigned their licence, and ADIs who were removed from the register (Registrar's decision).
The same document also includes how many ADIs were added to the ADI register for the same period. This includes data on new ADI registrations, ADIs who renewed their licence (renewals), and ADIs who re-registered after a period of time off the register (Re-registration).
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make it her policy to encourage local authorities to install hedgehog crossing signs on busy roads.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department authorised the use of the small wild animal sign in December 2023, giving local authorities permission to place the sign without reference to the Department. Prior to this none of these signs had been authorised. The Department does not hold information on how many signs are installed by local authorities.
There are no plans to encourage local authorities to install these signs, it is entirely a matter for local authorities to decide upon.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many hedgehog crossing signs have been installed on roads in England in the last three years.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department authorised the use of the small wild animal sign in December 2023, giving local authorities permission to place the sign without reference to the Department. Prior to this none of these signs had been authorised. The Department does not hold information on how many signs are installed by local authorities.
There are no plans to encourage local authorities to install these signs, it is entirely a matter for local authorities to decide upon.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what purposes the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In the last 12 months, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has trialled the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot across Microsoft productivity tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams).
DVSA’s Digital, Data and Technology colleagues are also trialling GitHub copilot. DVSA is exploring this in conjunction with Government Digital Service Engineering Excellence. The trial is due to complete on 28 February 2025 and DVSA will provide feedback to the government’s Chief Technology Officer Council.
DVSA has also used artificial intelligence (AI) for the following purposes: