Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of implementing minimum service levels on (a) the number of and (b) the impact of strikes.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Minimum service levels will allow us to get the balance right between respecting the right strike, whilst ensuring passengers can make essential journeys to access healthcare, education and employment.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when she plans to publish further information on her proposals to introduce minimum service levels during strike action.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill was introduced into the House of Commons on 20 October 2022.
The bill can be found here:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3350
The Explanatory notes can be found here:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3350/publications
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the future of the Bus Recovery Grant after December 2022.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government has provided nearly £2 billion in emergency and recovery grants to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on the bus sector. On 19 August the Government announced a further £130 million, six-month extension to the Bus Recovery Grant. The extension period started on 5th October and will end on 31 March 2023. Allocations to December 2022 have been confirmed, and we expect to confirm allocations from January to March 2023 in due course.
The Government also provides support to the sector through the Bus Service Operators Grant every year. Around £200 million is provided annually to bus operators to help them maintain an extensive network and keep fares down, and a further £42 million is provided to Local Transport Authorities every year to subsidise socially necessary bus services.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when Bus Service Improvement Plan funding will be delivered to that programme's recipients.
Answered by Karl McCartney
A total of 31 Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs), representing 34 local authority areas, have been selected for funding from over £1 billion new dedicated funding - as part of the £3 billion being invested in buses over the course of this Parliament.
We aim to issue final grant funding letters, before commencing payments in due course.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average processing time was for driving licence applications where a medical condition needed to be considered, as of 21 June 2022.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In May 2022, the latest full month for which information is available, the average time to make a licensing decision where the driving licence applicant had declared a medical condition was 91 working days.
The majority of applicants will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing they can meet the criteria outlined here.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 22 April 2022 to Question 154083 on Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency: Standards, if he will publish the data used to conclude that (a) there are no delays in successful online applications, (b) the backlog of vehicles paper applications has been eliminated and (c) straightforward vocational driving licence applications and renewals are being processed within five working days with no backlog.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online services are the quickest and easiest way to make an application. The average time taken to process successful online applications between April 2021 and March 2022 was two working days.
All vehicles-related paper applications are now being processed within normal turnaround times.
The DVLA focused extra resource on vocational driving licence applications and cleared more than 55,000 applications in a matter of weeks at the height of the driver shortage. Routine applications for vocational driving licences are being processed within normal turnaround times of five working days. Applications where a medical condition must be investigated will take longer.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the performance of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The quickest and easiest way to transact with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is by using its extensive suite of online services. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their documents within a few days.
However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. The Government understands the impact that delays in processing paper applications can have on the daily lives of individuals and the DVLA is working hard to reduce waiting times. The DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has opened new customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham to reduce backlogs and provide future resilience. These measures are having a positive impact.
The backlog of vehicles paper applications has already been eliminated. Straightforward vocational driving licence applications and renewals are being processed within five working days with no backlog. The DVLA is on track to return to normal turnaround times on all paper driving licence applications by the end of May. Most straightforward paper driving licence applications are now being processed in around five weeks. Information on processing times for key DVLA workstreams is published online here.
The more complex driving licence applications where the customer has a medical condition(s) that must be investigated will take longer to recover. This area was targeted for industrial action by the Public and Commercial Services union last year and also DVLA cases were deprioritised by the NHS at a number of points during the pandemic. The large majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online here.