Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to introduce a new funding formula for Transport for London from April 2024 that reduces its reliance on passenger fares.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London and therefore any decisions on reducing Transport for London’s reliance on passenger fares are for him to make.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the level of contamination of surface water run-off on the road network overseen by National Highways.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Department is confident that through the Environment Agency working with National Highways they are able to continually assess, review and improve potential areas of high risk to contamination. National Highways also have rigorous processes in pace to assess and monitor the level of contamination of surface water run off on the road network.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is seeking to negotiate reforms to the rail network as part of its pay negotiations with train drivers' unions.
Answered by Huw Merriman
As the Department is not the employer, negotiations are between the industry and the trade unions.
The Rail Delivery Group, on behalf of the train operators, has presented a fair and reasonable offer to the rail trade unions including ASLEF, which included urgent reform to ensure our railways are financially and operationally sustainable for the benefit of passengers, rail workers and the taxpayer as well as delivering a pay rise.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding the Government has provided to Transport for London in each of the last five years.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The government has provided £7.314 billion in transport grant and loans, in the last 5 years, to support TfL.
This can be broken down as follows:
19/20 £27m
20/21 £3.927bn
21/22 £1.901bn
22/23 £909m
23/24 £550m
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to agree five-year funding settlements for local transport with local authorities.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, the Government recognises the benefits of multi-year funding settlements for local transport authorities. Our £5.7 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements programme provides consolidated, long-term capital funding to 8 city regions across England through 5-year settlements from 2022/23 to 2026/27.
Decisions on funding settlements for other transport authorities will be a matter for the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has provided for local road maintenance in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. During the past ten financial years the Department has provided over £11.9 billion to local highway authorities across England outside of London for highway maintenance. This includes formula funding from the Highways Maintenance Block, Pothole Action Fund (2016/17 – 2020/21), Potholes Fund (2020/21-2024/25) and the Wet Weather/Resilience fund.
Year | Maintenance Block (£m) | Additional Pothole and Other Top Ups (£m) | Wet Weather funding (£m) | Total |
2014/15 | 707 | 243 |
| 950 |
2015/16* | 976 |
| 180 | 1,156 |
2016/17* | 976 | 50 |
| 1,026 |
2017/18* | 1,051 | 121 | 50 | 1,222 |
2018/19 | 876 | 470 |
| 1,346 |
2019/20* | 1,001 | 25 | 25 | 1,051 |
2020/21* | 976 | 650 |
| 1,626 |
2021/22 | 625 | 500 |
| 1,125 |
2022/23** | 625 | 500 |
| 1,125 |
2023/24** | 625 | 700 |
| 1,325 |
Total | 8,438 | 3,259 | 255 | 11,952 |
* Financial years also include grant funding to local authorities through the Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund, a competitive funding element top-sliced from the Highways Maintenance Block.[1]
** This includes the funding that is now being paid as part of the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS).
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-highways-maintenance-challenge-fund-schemes
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps with local authorities to introduce a ten-year maintenance plan for local roads.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
There are considerable benefits to providing local highway authorities with multi-year funding certainty. This helps them enter into long-term arrangements with contractors and the supply chain as well as to carry out more planned and proactive maintenance, thus delivering better value for money for the taxpayer.
The Department is mid-way through the three-year funding settlement for local highway maintenance that was announced in 2021. This comprises approximately £915 million of capital funding per year for local highways maintenance between 2022/23 and 2024/25 for eligible local highway authorities across England outside of London and the Mayoral Combined Authorities. The Mayoral Combined Authorities which are in receipt of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) already have five-year funding settlements.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the number of trees his Department has planted on road infrastructure in the last 10 years that have subsequently died.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The collation of this data started in 2018, therefore data is not available for the last ten years.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trees his Department has planted on road infrastructure in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The collation of this data started in 2018, therefore data is not available for the last ten years.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including additional emergency responders in the blue light system.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Government recognises that access to warning equipment and road traffic exemptions is essential to allow the emergency services to protect the public. Emergency driving does have an element of risk, and it is equally important that appropriate governance and safeguards are in place to ensure emergency driving takes place only where justified, and with adequate levels of training.
The Government intends to introduce the secondary legislation necessary to commence section 19 Road Safety Act 2006. This legislation, as well as setting a mandatory minimum training level before emergency responders can claim the speed exemption, creates a number of new emergency exemption purposes. It will also create a simplified process for adding further emergency purposes subject to appropriate justification, through secondary rather than primary legislation. Finally, it will also harmonise access to blue lights and sirens for voluntary sector secondary responders working to UK Search and Rescue [UKSAR] guidelines.