Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that retailers of e-scooters advise customers of the law on their use.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Ministers wrote to e-scooter retailers in December 2018 and July this year to highlight the need for providing consumers with clear information about the laws relating to privately owned e-scooter use, including, for example, that they are lawful to use on private land. Officials are continuing to consult with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), who oversee consumer law, about further steps that can be taken to encourage retailers to be responsible in their messaging with consumers of e-scooters
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of enabling people who hold a category DE driving licence to (a) automatically acquire a category C licence or (b) relax the requirements for obtaining that licence in the context of the shortage of HGV drivers.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government has no plans to allow drivers with a Category D licence for buses and coaches to drive large goods vehicles without obtaining a Category C licence. While these vehicles are similar in size, it is important to recognise that they are very different in their weight and their manoeuvrability.
Ensuring drivers have the right licence, and skills, needed to drive different types of vehicles is key to maintaining road safety.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to reduce queue waiting times for users attempting to access the DVSA theory test online booking system.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) launched the new theory test booking service on 19 July 2021.
To allow the prompt deployment of critical fixes, the DVSA introduced a maintenance window of 8pm to 8am running until 29 July 2021 to resolve issues faced by customers and to improve system stability. Whilst the system performed below expectations on its first two days of operation it stabilised quickly and has performed in line with expectations since.
To ensure technical issues are resolved quickly and effectively mitigated, further overnight maintenance is being carried out during August and may continue during September. To minimise disruption to customers, the service will be unavailable overnight only when absolutely necessary with customers notified in advance.
The DVSA uses a queuing system to protect the new service from being overloaded. As at 23 July 2021, no customers using the booking system had to queue.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that technical issues with the DVSA theory test online booking system that prevent users from booking a test are (a) resolved quickly and (b) effectively mitigated going forward.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) launched the new theory test booking service on 19 July 2021.
To allow the prompt deployment of critical fixes, the DVSA introduced a maintenance window of 8pm to 8am running until 29 July 2021 to resolve issues faced by customers and to improve system stability. Whilst the system performed below expectations on its first two days of operation it stabilised quickly and has performed in line with expectations since.
To ensure technical issues are resolved quickly and effectively mitigated, further overnight maintenance is being carried out during August and may continue during September. To minimise disruption to customers, the service will be unavailable overnight only when absolutely necessary with customers notified in advance.
The DVSA uses a queuing system to protect the new service from being overloaded. As at 23 July 2021, no customers using the booking system had to queue.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on (a) communications, (b) advertising and (c) marketing in (i) the UK, (ii) England, (iii) Northern Ireland, (iv) Scotland and (v) Wales in each month from August 2020 to December 2020.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Please see below estimates of spend by month and territory for the Department for Transport, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. There is no recorded spend for the Vehicle Certification Agency or for the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency during this period.
Department for Transport
England Only
| August | September | October | November | December | TOTAL |
Communications/ marketing spend | £102,389.00 | £276,496.00 | £286,563.00 | £100,628.96 | £44,619.00 | £810,695.96 |
Of which Advertising | £0.00 | £178,537.00 | £192,409.00 | £100,039.00 | £24,122.00 | £495,107.00 |
England and Wales Only
| August | September | October | November | December | TOTAL |
Communications/ marketing spend | £186,035.45 | £287,500.00 | £137,352.00 | £50,922.00 | £177,135.00 | £838,944.00 |
Of which Advertising | £12,819.45 | £138,287.00 | £71,988.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £223,094.45 |
UK – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
| August | September | October | November | December | TOTAL |
Communications/ marketing spend | £107.81 | £346.92 | £25,719.97 | £51,271.40 | £1,382.59 | £78,828.69 |
Of which Advertising | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency
UK – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
| August | September | October | November | December | TOTAL |
Communications/ marketing spend | £1,453.00 | £1,500.00 | £63,226.05 | £451,930.082 | £256,588.49 | £774,668.46 |
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
England, Wales and Scotland only
| August | September | October | November | December | TOTAL |
Communications/ marketing spend | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £32,000.00 | £32,000.00 |
Of which Advertising | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £32,000.00 | £32,000.00 |
UK – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
| August | September | October | November | December | TOTAL |
Communications/ marketing spend | £70,706.00 | £16,235.00 | £4,726.00 | £3,321.00 | £1,770.00 | £96,758.00 |
Of which Advertising | £63,000.00 | £9,000.00 | £1,150.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £73,150.00 |
To note:
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that bicycle lights fitted to bicycles at the manufacturing stage which are integral to the bicycle itself comply with the standards in the Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Pedal Bicycles (Safety) Regulations 2010 protects consumers by regulating the supply of bicycles. It requires a retro reflector or lamp to be fitted to the front, and a retro reflector to the rear.
All lamps fitted to bicycles are also covered by the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989, and the Road Traffic Act 1988 makes it an offence to fit a part which would contravene those regulations.
Enforcement of consumer protection requirements for products being placed on the market is generally the responsibility of local authority trading standards officers and enforcement of road traffic law for cyclists is a matter for the Police.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to establish a standard mandatory (a) brightness and (b) width of flood for bicycle lights.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The lighting of road vehicles, including bicycles, is regulated by the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 (as amended). To control light output bicycle lamps emitting a steady light must comply with British Standard 6102: Part 3 or an equivalent European standard. The standard includes maximum and minimum luminous intensity requirements, and defines the beam pattern to ensure the road surface is adequately lit whilst minimising glare to other road users. Flashing lamps may also be used provided they comply with the mandatory minimum luminous intensity requirement.
It is an offence to dazzle other road users with bicycle lamps. There are no current plans to change these provisions.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has responded to the letter sent to the Prime Minister on 27 August 2020 from the British Educational Travel Association; and what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues copied into that letter on its contents.
Answered by Robert Courts
The letter copied to the Secretary of State has been received. However due to the high number of correspondence the Department has received we have been unable to respond. However, I would like to assure the honourable member for Midlothian, that a response will be sent shortly.
The Department for Transport is in regular contact with the travel industry regarding the challenges facing the sector as a result of COVID-19. The sector is crucial to the UK’s economy and businesses across the industry are able to draw on the unprecedented package of economic measures we have put in place during this time.
This includes a Bank of England scheme for firms to raise capital, two business interruption loan guarantee schemes for different sizes of business, Time to Pay flexibilities with tax bills, financial support for employees and VAT deferrals.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on transport decarbonisation of hydrogen lorries; and what discussions he has had with the transport industry on the introduction of those lorries to the UK.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
In 2018, the Department for Transport published the outputs of the Transport Energy Model. The model provides a clear assessment of the relative environmental impacts of a range of fuel and powertrain options for road vehicles over the period to 2050, including hydrogen fuel cell heavy goods vehicles. Transport Ministers and officials regularly meet with sector representatives on a range of issues, including the use of hydrogen in the freight industry. During July and August officials engaged with over 700 key stakeholders to support the development of our Transport Decarbonisation Plan which will be published later this year and set out options and support for green hydrogen across road, rail, maritime and aviation.