Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2026 to Question 118042, whether the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has set any key performance indicators for recruitment campaigns for driving examiner roles.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) monitors the performance of recruitment campaigns, including:
The performance in these areas have improved in the past 12 months. For example, before November 2025, the average time DVSA took to advertise and onboard potential driving examiners (DE) into training was 16 weeks. In December 2025, DVSA improved its recruitment process and the average time DVSA now takes to onboard potential DEs is 13 weeks. Further proposals should see this reduce by another 2-3 weeks for future campaigns.
For campaigns up to November 2025, DVSA used the data available from the Civil Service recruitment standard applicants survey. This shows which advertising routes generate candidates, however the information is limited and does not give 100% coverage.
In December 2025, DVSA introduced a DVSA specific survey. This is sent to everyone who is offered an interview. This is then followed by another survey sent to anyone who successfully moves onto training. The data will be crossed referenced, however DVSA currently only has data for one complete and one ongoing campaign.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in which month will the first East West Rail services operate from Winslow to Bletchley.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department continues to work closely with Chiltern Railways and other partners to confirm a start date for the first EWR services between Oxford and Milton Keynes Central via Winslow. For passenger services to commence, trains will need to have been modified and fully tested, and driver training will need to have been completed. Winslow station also needs to be fully handed over, and future staffing arrangements also remain to be agreed.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the paragraph entitled East West Rail lease write-offs on page 9 of the National Audit Office’s Department for Transport Overview 2024–25, which states that £2.6 million in lease costs for East West Rail rolling stock were written off following delays to testing, whether (a) East West Rail Company Ltd, or (b) her Department, has written off any such lease costs; and if she will provide a breakdown of those costs.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The published Department for Transport annual report and accounts 2024/2025 included the £2.6m lease cost write-off. The breakdown comprised of approximately £900k in 2023/2024 and approximately £1.7m in 2024/2025. The costs were for rolling stock contracted payments to the Rolling Stock Company (ROSCO).
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to her answer of 22 January 2026 to Question 106805, what steps her department is taking to ensure that all local authorities give serious consideration to implementing auto-enrolment for free school meals.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We want to make sure that every family that needs support can access it.
Local authorities are responsible for managing their own processes for identifying children eligible for free school meals. We know that many schools and local authorities have established very effective ways to encourage eligible families to register.
By introducing a new eligibility threshold for free school meals so that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals from the start of the 2026/27 academic year, this will make it much easier for local authorities, schools and parents to know which children are entitled to receive free meals. Our improvements to the digital system used to review eligibility will also make it easier for parents to understand their entitlement.
As with all government policies, we continue to keep free school meals under review.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether Royal Navy personnel currently deployed to Bahrain for the decommissioning of HMS Lancaster will be withdrawn for the duration of the current conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The United Kingdom remains concerned over the indiscriminate attacks from Iran across the region, which are putting British nationals at risk. The safety of British personnel and citizens will always be the government's top priority, and we have therefore taken all necessary measures to ensure they are protected. In accordance with operational security considerations, we are unable to comment further.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of emergency track and asset renewals on the rail network over the last ten years.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Analysis of trends in asset failures form part of Network Rail’s assurance processes. Whilst it has identified that track asset ‘used life’ has been increasing over ten years, its data shows that the ‘performance risk’ for rail and track geometry defects is less than 40 per cent of the levels seen 25 years ago.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of rail decarbonisation policies on costs to consumers.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The impact of rail decarbonisation policies on consumers is very minimal, as measures such as electrification of track and train are implemented over multi-year infrastructure investment cycles, and are not passed through to consumers in full via ticket prices. As such, the department has not made an estimate. Rail is also already a comparatively low-carbon mode of travel.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her department has made of the effectiveness of the Independent Fostering Agencies at improving the retention of experienced foster carers; and what steps she is taking to ensure that Regional Care Cooperatives and Local Authorities prioritise (a) adequate and transparent financial support (b) high‑quality training and (c) responsive post‑approval support.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s fostering plan, published on 4 February, focuses predominantly on strengthening local authority fostering provision, which has seen the biggest decrease in foster carers in recent years. At the same time, we want to see an expansion of third sector provision, as well as learning from private providers who achieve good outcomes for children and how their best practice can be spread across the system. Our call for evidence explores options to improve financial transparency across local authorities and independent fostering agencies (IFAs).
Wider reforms will also mean that local authorities, working together as regional care co-operatives, can co-ordinate their approach to private provision more effectively. This will mean they can plan and purchase support from IFAs, using collective negotiation to improve value for local government, and ensure that care meets the needs of children.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that Regional Care Cooperatives work in structured collaboration with Independent Fostering Agencies to (a) facilitate shared sufficiency planning (b) maximise the use of existing foster homes and (c) secure quicker access to the most appropriate foster carers for children in care.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s fostering plan, published on 4 February, focuses predominantly on strengthening local authority fostering provision, which has seen the biggest decrease in foster carers in recent years. At the same time, we want to see an expansion of third sector provision, as well as learning from private providers who achieve good outcomes for children and how their best practice can be spread across the system. Our call for evidence explores options to improve financial transparency across local authorities and independent fostering agencies (IFAs).
Wider reforms will also mean that local authorities, working together as regional care co-operatives, can co-ordinate their approach to private provision more effectively. This will mean they can plan and purchase support from IFAs, using collective negotiation to improve value for local government, and ensure that care meets the needs of children.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of moving to a ten-year rail funding settlement to support long-term planning, value for money, and whole-life asset management.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We have considered the appropriate length of rail funding settlements as part of rail reform and the establishment of Great British Railways. Five-years of infrastructure funding, resulting in a five-year delivery plan, has been established as the appropriate balance between supporting long-term planning and reflecting the realities of a changing operational environment. Five-year funding will be informed by the Long-Term Rail Strategy to ensure there is long-term planning that supports the funding settlement.
Whilst we will continue to fund passenger services through the Spending Review process and timelines, legislation does retain future flexibility for passenger services budgets to be set over a five-year period.