Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department has taken to reduce the number of pot-holes in Mid Leicestershire constituency.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Leicestershire County Council is the local highway authority for the Mid-Leicestershire constituency. The Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to helping local highway authorities such as Leicestershire maintain and renew their local highway networks.
At Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced an extra £500 million for local highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year, with funding allocations to individual English local highway authorities announced on 20 December 2024. Leicestershire County Council will receive up to £28.7 million for local highway maintenance in 2025/26, an increase of around 36% compared to the current financial year.
In addition, the Government publishes data annually on the condition of the local road network in England, including Leicestershire, with the data available on gov.uk. The Department has worked with the British Standards Institute and the wider sector to produce PAS 2161, a new standard for road condition monitoring to help local authorities such as Leicestershire utilise new technologies when monitoring the condition of their road networks.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the reliability of lane-keeping assist technologies (a) in challenging environmental conditions and (b) generally.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Lane keeping technology is designed to assist drivers but they must remain attentive and are still responsible for the safe operation of the vehicle at all times. Lane-keeping assist technologies must be approved to internationally agreed technical requirements that provide assurance of the safe operation of these systems. Manufacturers are free to determine the extent to which their system operates across a range of environmental conditions provided it is considered safe by the approval authority. The UK is an active participant in the negotiation of these requirements and has recently been involved in the development of a new regulation specifically to allow more sophisticated driver assistance systems. This new regulation gives approval authorities clearer direction on assessing the safe functioning of these systems, benefitting manufacturers when making the case for allowing their system to operate across a wider range of environmental conditions.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve driver (a) awareness of and (b) education in the (i) limitations and (ii) proper usage of lane-keeping assist systems.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Driver Vehicle and Standards Agency (DVSA) has developed a range of products to improve awareness and education of lane-keeping assist systems and other advanced driver assistance systems. The DVSA has also developed guidance to support the introduction of self-driving vehicles.
This includes updating the Highway Code and introducing new guidance to a range of DVSA publications, such as their Essential Skills, Better Driving, and Theory Test for Cars publications. The DVSA have also created 18 videos on ADAS in their Essential Skills video series.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of accidents in England involved lane-keep assist intervention in 2023/24; and what steps she is taking to tackle concerns over the safety of such systems.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This information is not held by the Department.
The internationally harmonised requirements for lane-keep assist systems that are mandated for UK vehicles provide assurance that they operate safely. Where there is evidence of genuine safety concerns with such systems, the Department will raise this at an international level with an aim to amend the regulatory requirements to address this.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the efficiency of (a) traffic commissioners and (b) DVLA offices in processing licence renewals for C1 vehicle handlers.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
A functional review of the work of the traffic commissioners was carried out in 2021-2022 and the report can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-commissioner-function-review-2021-to-2022. The Department is working towards implementing the recommendations of the review.
Where the Secretary of State has concerns about the conduct of an applicant for a large goods vehicle or passenger carrying vehicle driving licence, the matter may be referred to a traffic commissioner for consideration.
Where appropriate cases are referred to a traffic commissioner, they are provided administrative support by Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency staff who are deployed to the Office of the Traffic Commissioner. The Senior Traffic Commissioner has issued statutory guidance to assist traffic commissioners in adopting a consistent approach. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-commissioners-vocational-driver-conduct-january-2016. As part of the strategic objectives of the traffic commissioners, a review of this document is currently being undertaken.
Straightforward applications for vocational driving licences are being processed within normal turnaround times. Applications where a medical condition must be investigated before a licence can be issued may take longer as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is often reliant on receiving information from third parties, for example doctors, other healthcare professionals or the applicant themselves, before a decision on whether to issue a licence can be made.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many employee settlement agreements there were in her Department in each year since 2020; and what the total value of such agreements is.
Answered by Mike Kane
Exit packages are published in the DfT Annual Reports and Accounts and all redundancy, severance and other department costs, are paid in accordance with the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (except where instances are detailed in the accounts as otherwise) e.g. see Page 141 of 2023/24 DfT Annual Report and Accounts https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66a7690649b9c0597fdb0617/dft-annual-report-23-24-print.pdf.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many pensioners qualify for free bus passes.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Concessionary travel is a devolved policy area, and legislation and assessment of eligibility with regarding concessionary travel in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are matters for the appropriate devolved administration.
In England, the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age. The Office for National Statistics mid-year estimates for 2021 show that around 9.9 million people in England were aged 66 and above and therefore eligible for an ENCTS bus pass.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations she has made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on retaining the £2 bus fare scheme beyond December 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Delivering reliable and affordable public transport services for passengers is one of the Government’s top priorities and we know how important this is for passengers and for local growth. The Government is urgently considering the most effective and affordable ways to deliver on these objectives.