Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 December 2023 to Question 5413 on Motor Vehicles: Insurance, if he will make an assessment of the impact of increases in the cost of insurance on (a) elderly people and (b) people in other age groups.
Answered by Guy Opperman
It is the responsibility of individual motor insurers to set their premiums and the terms and conditions of their policies, and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market.
The Government is determined that insurers should treat customers fairly and firms are required to do so under Financial Conduct Authority rules.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to help ensure that elderly motorists have access to affordable car insurance policies.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Government is determined that insurers should treat customers fairly and firms are required to do so under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules.
Department for Transport officials regularly liaise with representatives of the motor insurance industry and discuss issues as they arise.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the report by the National Audit Office entitled Active Travel in England, published on 7 June 2023; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Department welcomes the report and will consider its recommendations carefully. The Department will provide its formal response following the scheduled Public Accounts Committee hearing.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on ensuring that active travel schemes funded through the Levelling Up Fund meet national guidelines.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Officials in the Department for Transport and Active Travel England continue to work closely with officials in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ensure that active travel schemes funded in this way meet the standards outlined in cycle infrastructure design guidance. This is also included as a requirement in local authority grant awards. Active Travel England provides design assurance of Levelling Up Fund bids and will play a role in reviewing all scheme proposals as they develop. It will also work with successful local authorities to accelerate delivery, ensuring high quality, safe active travel infrastructure is built.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what financial steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help more people to (a) walk, (b) wheel and (c) cycle in (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government expects to invest a total of around £3 billion in active travel from 2020 to 2025. This includes at least £100 million of dedicated capital funding over the two-year period 2023/24 to 2024/25 for active travel infrastructure. In addition to this, the Department will confirm the revenue funding for active travel for 2023/24 and 2024/25 shortly, which pays for programmes including the Bikeability training programme. As outlined in the second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2), there are a range of cross-Government funding streams supporting the delivery of active travel infrastructure. These funds include the Levelling Up Fund, Towns Fund, City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements and National Highways Designated Funds.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for active travel.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Department’s ministers and officials have regular discussions with their counterparts in His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) on active travel funding and other matters. In recent months, discussions on active travel with HMT have focused on the need to provide multi-year funding to support the delivery of the objectives of the second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2) published in July 2022. The Government expects to invest a total of around £3 billion in active travel from 2020 to 2025.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to her Department's noise detecting traffic camera trials, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using such cameras in Batley and Spen constituency.
Answered by Katherine Fletcher
The Department’s roadside trials of noise camera technology commenced on 18 October. Over 70 applications for the trial were received, but due to the project being in the research stage and the prototype nature of the technology, only 4 sites could be selected. Shortlisted sites were chosen based on a number of factors to achieve a sufficiently wide range of road types to test the noise camera technology.
Unfortunately, we are unable to consider any further applications for trial locations, but if the trials prove to be successful, noise cameras may be considered for wider rollout.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits for transport in West Yorkshire of extending the Bus Recovery Grant.
Answered by Karl McCartney
The Government has provided over £2 billion of support through emergency and recovery grants to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on bus and light rail services. A further £184 million in funding has been provided to continue supporting the sector following the Covid-19 pandemic until October 2022 to give services the maximum amount of time to recover. West Yorkshire Combined Authority has received over £8 million in emergency and recovery grant funding.
A condition of this new funding is that both Local Transport Authorities and operators must work together to assess the impact of funding ending in October and to ensure that effective and financially sustainable networks, which cater for the needs of the local public, are implemented once recovery funding ends. There are no plans to extend bus and light rail recovery funding beyond October 2022.
The Government has also provided over £2.5 billion in new funding to support improvements to bus services. West Yorkshire Combined Authority has received an indicative allocation of £70 million with which to deliver its Bus Service Improvement Plan.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 22 January to Question 100639, when his Department’s review of DfT Circular 1/2007 on the use of speed cameras will be (a) completed and (b) published.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department is currently preparing a revised draft of DfT Circular 1/2007 in light of stakeholder feedback. We plan to further engage with interested parties over the summer, with a view to publishing later in 2022.