Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will issue guidance to train companies stating that they should always seek to run trains as long-form not short-form, including when operating strike day timetables.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s contracts with train operators include obligations upon operators to plan services that provide sufficient capacity to meet the expected level of passenger demand and within the constraints of the infrastructure and the available resources. Operators are also required to act with reasonable endeavours to mitigate the impact of any disruption to their planned services, including during strike action.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what new steps he will take to support improving key roads that are not part of the Major Road Network, outside existing commitments.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government currently has a number of programmes running that support improvements to local roads that are not part of the Major Road Network. This includes the development of business cases under the Large Local Majors programme; projects approved and under construction funded through the Local Growth Fund and other funding sources and the Integrated Transport Block for small scale projects, which is paid by formula to all local highways authorities in England, outside London. For future Budgets and Spending Rounds, the Government will consider the case for further investment for improvements to local roads.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a British number plate that incorporates the Union flag and the GB national identifier so that British cars comply with the UN's Geneva Convention on Road Traffic 1949 and Vienna Convention on Road Traffic 1968 without requiring an oval GB sticker after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by George Freeman
The law in the United Kingdom already allows for the use of national identifiers on number plates for domestic use.
The use of a GB identifier on a number plate is recognised by countries that have signed up to the Vienna Convention.
Those countries which have not signed up to the Vienna Convention will still require the use of a GB sticker as the Convention does not include provisions for distinguishing signs in a number plate.
Therefore, advice to customers to avoid any difficulties when travelling internationally would be to use a GB sticker on their vehicle.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
If he will allocate additional funding to improve roads outside the major road network and the strategic road network.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Department for Transport is committed to providing over £6.7 billion to local highway authorities in England, outside London, from 2015 to 2021 to help improve the condition of roads and reduce congestion. The funding includes a £296 million Pothole Action Fund and £420 million for highways maintenance and a congestion busting fund as announced in Budget 2018.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he will take to support improving key roads that are official diversion routes for motorways that are not in the major road network.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Highways England and the relevant local authority work together to identify local roads that are official diversionary routes. As part of this, a risk assessment is undertaken to determine a route’s suitability. That assessment includes taking account of suitability and physical characteristics.
Diversion route planning is conducted in close liaison with the local highway authority traffic manager, and includes liaison with other key local stakeholders as deemed necessary by the authority.
The Government is providing over £6.6 billion funding for local highways maintenance between 2015 and 2021. It is for local highway authorities to decide how this funding is utilised, including on improvement of key diversionary roads, based on local needs and priorities.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the President of the Board of Trade on the effect on trade of improving the Reading to Gatwick Airport road corridor through the building of an M31.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department recognises the importance to trade of high-quality and reliable transport to and from airports, and is considering how to improve connectivity in the south of England, including the Reading to Gatwick Airport area, through the M25 South West Quadrant strategic study.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on the introduction of an automated delay repay compensation scheme that is interoperable across train operating companies.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department requires operators of new franchises to provide automated Delay Repay compensation processes that make claiming swift and simple and is working with the rail industry and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to deliver more automated claims processes across all DfT-let franchises. The Delay Repay compensation scheme has now been rolled out to all but one of these franchises. Since announcing ‘one-click’ compensation in October 2018, the Government has also introduced a requirement for new franchises to introduce simple one-click automated claims systems, available via smartphones and smartcard registration, to make it easier for passengers to claim compensation when they have suffered delays.
In practice, train operating companies work with one another to ensure that the Delay Repay compensation scheme works in an interoperable way between franchises. For example, if a passenger submits their claim for compensation to an operator other than the one responsible for the delay, then the operator receiving the claim should forward this to the one that was responsible for the delay and advise the passenger that they have done this.
We can advise that South Western Railway (SWR)’s compensation offering was improved earlier this month with the announcement of Automated Delay Repay, which is a new simpler way of claiming compensation for Season ticket holders using SWR Touch smartcards and for holders of Advance tickets purchased through SWR’s website:
https://www.southwesternrailway.com/contact-and-help/refunds-and-compensation/automated-delay-repay.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the report entitled, Identifying the Multimodal Strategic Freight Network and the Value of Improving its Operation, published by the UK Major Ports Group, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the cost of bottleneck junctions in (a) Bramley, Hampshire and (b) the UK.
Answered by Andrew Jones
In Control Period 5 (2014-2019), Government made available £235m through the Strategic Freight Network fund, investing in projects to support rail freight growth. The route out of the Port of Southampton is benefiting from a programme of investment to enable longer freight trains to operate between there and the North / Midlands.
There is funding available in Control Period 6 (2019-2024) for continued improvements to the rail network. Government is working with Network Rail and the freight industry to develop options for investment over the next five years.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department is making on the introduction of an automated delay repay compensation scheme that is interoperable across train operating companies.
Answered by Andrew Jones
As announced by the Secretary of State in October, the Government will mandate new franchises to introduce simple “one-click” automated claims systems, available via smartphones and smartcard registration. This will make it easier for passengers to claim compensation when they have suffered delays.
We are also encouraging “one-click” compensation to be introduced across all DfT train operators.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on the future roll-out of yellow vulture cameras that catch drivers speeding, using their mobile phone, eating or not wearing a seatbelt.
Answered by Jesse Norman
These cameras only function to detect speeding offences. The Government has no current plans to change the scope.