Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of electric vehicles on the safety of blind and visually impaired pedestrians.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport commissioned research to assess the perceived safety risk from quiet electric vehicles to vision-impaired pedestrians in 2011. This research indicated that electric vehicles had sound levels similar to vehicles propelled by combustion engines above speeds of approximately 12 miles per hour but could be more difficult to detect at lower speeds.
Vehicle approval requirements were therefore introduced to mandate sound generators, known as Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS), on new types of quiet electric and hybrid vehicles. AVAS has been required for new vehicles registered from 1 July 2021. The requirements ensure that vehicles that can be operated on electric power only will always produce a specified level of noise below 12 miles per hour and during reversing.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 9 March 2023 entitled Transport Update, HCWS625, whether he plans to amend the objectives in the second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, published on 6 July 2022 in the level of (a) ringfenced and (b) non-ringfenced funding announced for active travel for the remaining spending period.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department has no plans to amend these objectives.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of meeting the 2025 and 2030 objectives for his department’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy; and how much (a) ringfenced and (b) non-ringfenced funding his Department has made available for that Strategy (i) at the time it was published and (ii) as of 27 April 2023.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2) estimates that over £3 billion will be invested in active travel between 2021/22 to 2024/5 from a range of ring-fenced and non-ring-fenced funds. This includes at least £100 million of ringfenced capital funding for active travel which will be provided over the two-year period 2023/24 to 2024/25, on top of £850 million of dedicated funding over the previous three-year period. It also includes estimates for City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) (£700m), Levelling Up Fund (£576m), Future High Streets Fund (£289m), Towns Fund (£293m) and National Highways Designated Funds (£90m). An update on estimates across all funds included within CWIS2 will be published in the next CWIS Report to Parliament.
Funding decisions for the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS3) period will be subject to decisions made at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will (a) extend the validity period for driving theory test passes and (b) waive the re-sit fee in the event that a driving theory test certificate has expired during the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place for road safety reasons; to ensure that a candidate’s knowledge is current. This validity period is set in legislation and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.
It is important that road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point that they drive unsupervised for the first time. Those with theory test certificates expiring may have taken their test in early 2019. Since then, their lessons and practice sessions will have been significantly curtailed during recent lockdowns and it is likely that their knowledge base will have diminished. Research suggests that this would be particularly harmful for hazard perception skills, a key factor in road safety.
Ensuring new drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the training of new drivers, who are disproportionality represented in casualty statistics. Taking all this into consideration, the decision has been made not to extend theory test certificates and learners will need to pass another theory test if their certificate expires.
There are no current plans to waive the charge of a theory test for those whose theory test certificates have expired, given that they will have already received the service for which they paid.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) pays its contractor, Pearson, per theory test delivered. If candidates were exempted from having to pay for a retake then the DVSA and in turn other fee payers would incur these costs. This would be unfair to fee payers who would not benefit from the arrangement.
In addition, applications for a re-test would need to be validated and systems amended to remove the requirement for payment in these cases. The DVSA’s focus should rightly be on developing solutions to address the backlog of practical driving tests that has arisen as a result of the pandemic.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he next plans to meet with representatives of the Confederation of Passenger Transport to discuss the issues facing the coach sector.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Ministers and officials from the Department of Transport regularly meet with representatives from the Confederation of Passenger Transport to discuss issues facing the coach sector.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the total cost to the public purse of payments to train operating companies under the Emergency Recovery Management Agreements.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Under the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMAs), operators have been placed under more demanding management agreements than the previous Emergency Measure Agreements. These include tougher performance targets and lower management fees.
The total cost to the public purse of rail services under ERMAs will depend on passenger revenue levels, which remain highly uncertain in the near term due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated public health measures. As such, no firm cost estimate is available.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to tender the (a) LNER and (b) Northern Rail contracts to private sector companies.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
No decisions about whether to tender the LNER or Northern Rail contracts have yet been taken, although the intention is to tender these to the private sector at an appropriate point in the future. However, currently the government is focused on delivering essential rail services during the pandemic. Last week the Secretary of State announced the introduction of new Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements which will enable franchised train operators to continue delivering for passengers at the current time.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether train operating companies will be subject to obligations to reduce their operating costs as a condition of Emergency Recovery Management Agreements.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements have obligations to co-ordinate across the industry to reduce fragmentation and cost duplication, and encourage efficiency. Capital budgets and spend will face enhanced scrutiny and challenge. Performance assessments of the quality of cross industry collaboration and financial performance will be made, and outcomes of this will be linked to the performance fee which can be earned by well-performing Franchisees.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the total amount that will be paid to (a) LNER and (b) Northern Rail under the Emergency Recovery Management Agreements.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
London North Eastern Railway and Northern remain under government control through the operator of last resort. As such, they do not have an Emergency Measures Agreement or Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has for the (a) long-term revenue and (b) long-term capital funding for the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
This Government is committed to the future of the Tyne and Wear Metro system. We have invested nearly £600m towards renewals and running costs and I am currently considering future long term investment commitments to support this vital transport system to the region. Furthermore, in the 2017 Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced a £337m direct grant to deliver a new fleet of trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro.