Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an estimate of the number of pothole-related damages to vehicles in Warwickshire in each year since 2010.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Under the 1980 Highways Act, local highway authorities, such as Warwickshire County Council, are responsible for maintaining and managing the local highway network within their area.
For the 2024/25 financial year, the Government is providing Warwickshire County Council with over £18.2 million for highway maintenance. This includes £2.056 million of reallocated HS2 funding and is a 12.7% increase over the funding the Council was expecting in 2024/25 before the Prime Minister’s Network North announcement.
It is up to the respective highway authority how best to spend this funding to fulfil their statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980. Funding is not ring fenced and Warwickshire can spend the money on all aspects of highway maintenance such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns – and not just the fixing of potholes.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of potholes on drivers in Warwickshire.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State is keen to support motorists in Warwickshire, and elsewhere, by mitigating the impact of potholes. Under the 1980 Highways Act, local highway authorities, such as Warwickshire County Council, are responsible for maintaining and managing the local highway network within their area.
For the 2024/25 financial year, the Government is providing Warwickshire County Council with over £18.2 million for highway maintenance. This includes £2.056 million of reallocated HS2 funding and is a 12.7% increase over the funding the Council was expecting in 2024/25 before the Prime Minister’s Network North announcement.
It is up to the respective highway authority how best to spend this funding to fulfil their statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980. Funding is not ring fenced and Warwickshire can spend the money on all aspects of highway maintenance such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns – and not just the fixing of potholes.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many schools were served by crossing guards in (a) 2018 and (b) 2024.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Local authorities are responsible for the provision of school crossing patrols as they are best placed to assess the needs of the local community. The Department for Transport does not collect statistics on school crossing patrols.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the length of time for which a driving theory test certificate is valid.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is important road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point a person drives unsupervised for the first time.
The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place to ensure a candidate’s road safety knowledge and ability to identify developing hazards is current. This validity period is set in legislation and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.
Ensuring new drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the preparation of new drivers, who are disproportionality represented in casualty statistics. Learners will therefore need to pass another theory test if their certificate expires.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the average change in the level of car insurance premiums in the last year.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The setting of motor insurance premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers based on their underwriting experience. The government does not intervene or seek to control the market.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of closing ticket offices at Leamington Spa, Warwick and Warwick Parkway stations on disabled rail passengers.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of all passengers; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. We would also expect operators to consider other equality related needs and make this clear in the notice sent to other operators and passenger groups.
Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. Following the consultations, the independent passenger bodies will play a vital role in assessing and shaping proposals.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many accidents involving cars and cyclists in which cyclists were not the cause were there in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Jesse Norman
This information is not collected by the Department.
Statistics on reported road collisions involving cars and pedal cyclists where at least one person was injured are based on data supplied by police forces using the STATS19 system. STATS19 data does not directly attribute blame or cause for collisions to any of the parties involved.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many zero-emission buses have been delivered as part of the Government’s target to provide 4,000 zero-emission buses by the end of 2024 as of 14 June 2023.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
We are committed to supporting the introduction of 4,000 zero emission buses by the end of the Parliament and achieving an all zero-emission bus fleet across the UK. Across the UK, an estimated 3,400 zero emission buses have been funded since February 2020.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on how many collisions involving buses have been caused by driver fatigue in each year since 2010.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department does not routinely collect information on the causes of collisions involving buses.
The closest available information held in relation to road collisions are statistics on contributory factors. When police officers attend the scene of a collision, they are able to select up to 6 factors they believe contributed to the collision. These do not assign blame for the collision to any specific road user but gives an indication of which factors the attending officer thought contributed to the collision.
The number of reported personal injury road collisions involving bus drivers which were assigned the “fatigue” contributory factor by an attending police officer in Great Britain from 2010 to 2021 (the latest year for which figures are available) can be found in the table below.
Collisions involving a bus driver who was assigned the "fatigue" contributory factor by an attending police officer, Great Britain, 2010 to 2021 | |||||||
Source: DfT, STATS19 | |||||||
Year | Collisions | ||||||
2010 | 11 | ||||||
2011 | 13 | ||||||
2012 | 9 | ||||||
2013 | 7 | ||||||
2014 | 16 | ||||||
2015 | 12 | ||||||
2016 | 11 | ||||||
2017 | 17 | ||||||
2018 | 14 | ||||||
2019 | 13 | ||||||
2020 | 7 | ||||||
2021 | 5 | ||||||
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on proposals for a gigafactory in Coventry.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Secretary of State regularly meets with the Chancellor to discuss a range of issues.