Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2025 to Question 82998, whether the Department plans to extend the HGV Parking and Driver Welfare Grant Scheme beyond March 2026; and what assessment has been made of the impact of project withdrawals, scope reductions and planning refusals on the delivery of additional HGV parking capacity.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no plans for further windows of the HGV Parking and Driver Welfare Matched Funding Scheme (MFGS).
To date 16 projects have been withdrawn by the operators. It is estimated that this is a reduction of up to 177 proposed additional HGV parking spaces.
There are no significant impacts on the number of parking spaces where projects have undergone scope reduction.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Royal Train will be treated as a Great British Railways service for the purposes of network access, charging and operational control once Great British Railways is established.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The 2024-2025 Sovereign Grant and Sovereign Grant Reserve Annual Reports and Accounts, published by the Royal Household, confirmed that the Royal Train will be decommissioned ahead of the current contract expiring in 2027, following a thorough review into its use and value for money. As such it will not become part of Great British Railways (GBR).
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 101484 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, what estimate she has made of the average amount of public funding provided per chargepoint.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information on the average amount of public funding per public chargepoint is not available. Most public chargepoints have not received any public subsidy.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency were (a) in post and (b) delivering practical car driving tests in January 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The national average waiting time for a practical car driving test in January 2026 was 21.2 weeks.
Data for January 2026 on the number of full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), that are in post and delivering practical car driving tests, will not be available until later in February.
As of 30 December 2025, there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners (DE) in post. Of those, 1,542 FTE were available to deliver practical car driving tests.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time for a practical car driving test was in January 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The national average waiting time for a practical car driving test in January 2026 was 21.2 weeks.
Data for January 2026 on the number of full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), that are in post and delivering practical car driving tests, will not be available until later in February.
As of 30 December 2025, there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners (DE) in post. Of those, 1,542 FTE were available to deliver practical car driving tests.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to pages 30 and 31 of the Government's report entitled Motor Insurance Taskforce: final report, published on 10 December 2025, whether the Department has concluded its consideration of penalties for the offence of driving a vehicle without motor insurance; and whether she has plans to increase the fixed penalty fine for this offence.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government does not intend to commission a specific review into the motorcycle insurance market, as motor insurers are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of the policies that they offer. It is for them to decide the level of risk that they take in issuing any policy to a given applicant. Motor insurers use a wide range of criteria to assess the potential risk a driver or rider poses including the age of the applicant, the type of vehicle being insured, the postal area where the applicant lives and their driving or riding experience. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers based on their underwriting experience. The government does not seek to control the motor insurance market.
The Motor Insurance Taskforce focused on identifying actions that address the factors that contribute to the cost of claims and consequently, the cost of insurance premiums paid by drivers. Given the number of factors involved in pricing motor insurance, the government has not sought to estimate figures for individual consumer savings. However, the government is confident that the taskforce’s collective actions will help to reduce claims costs and, by extension, premiums.
The Government’s Road Safety Strategy was published on 7 January. Alongside the strategy, five consultations have been launched, one of which proposes reforms to motoring offences, including introducing tougher penalties for driving without insurance: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-penalties-for-motoring-offences
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if her Department will commission a specific inquiry into the motorcycle insurance market to examine underwriter withdrawals, geographic exclusions and pricing anomalies.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government does not intend to commission a specific review into the motorcycle insurance market, as motor insurers are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of the policies that they offer. It is for them to decide the level of risk that they take in issuing any policy to a given applicant. Motor insurers use a wide range of criteria to assess the potential risk a driver or rider poses including the age of the applicant, the type of vehicle being insured, the postal area where the applicant lives and their driving or riding experience. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers based on their underwriting experience. The government does not seek to control the motor insurance market.
The Motor Insurance Taskforce focused on identifying actions that address the factors that contribute to the cost of claims and consequently, the cost of insurance premiums paid by drivers. Given the number of factors involved in pricing motor insurance, the government has not sought to estimate figures for individual consumer savings. However, the government is confident that the taskforce’s collective actions will help to reduce claims costs and, by extension, premiums.
The Government’s Road Safety Strategy was published on 7 January. Alongside the strategy, five consultations have been launched, one of which proposes reforms to motoring offences, including introducing tougher penalties for driving without insurance: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-penalties-for-motoring-offences
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has measurable targets for helping to reduce average motor insurance premiums.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government does not intend to commission a specific review into the motorcycle insurance market, as motor insurers are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of the policies that they offer. It is for them to decide the level of risk that they take in issuing any policy to a given applicant. Motor insurers use a wide range of criteria to assess the potential risk a driver or rider poses including the age of the applicant, the type of vehicle being insured, the postal area where the applicant lives and their driving or riding experience. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers based on their underwriting experience. The government does not seek to control the motor insurance market.
The Motor Insurance Taskforce focused on identifying actions that address the factors that contribute to the cost of claims and consequently, the cost of insurance premiums paid by drivers. Given the number of factors involved in pricing motor insurance, the government has not sought to estimate figures for individual consumer savings. However, the government is confident that the taskforce’s collective actions will help to reduce claims costs and, by extension, premiums.
The Government’s Road Safety Strategy was published on 7 January. Alongside the strategy, five consultations have been launched, one of which proposes reforms to motoring offences, including introducing tougher penalties for driving without insurance: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-penalties-for-motoring-offences
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many practical car driving tests were conducted in (a) July 2024 and (b) each subsequent month up to the most recent month for which data is available.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) publishes data on the number of practical driving tests conducted on GOV.UK.
The number of practical driving tests conducted by month, including from July 2024, is available on report DRT121G This data is updated monthly and currently shows data to January 2026.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2026 to Question 104865, whether her Department plans to improve the frequency and granularity of bus passenger journey data collection, including collection by calendar month.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport publishes bus passenger data at a range of frequencies and levels of detail.
Annual local bus passenger journey statistics are published on a financial year basis, with the latest release covering April 2024 to March 2025: https://www.gov.uk/government/statisticaldata-sets/bus-statistics-data-tables#local-bus-passenger-journeys-bus01.
In addition to the annual statistics, the Department publishes more frequent information on bus use through two separate statistical releases.
The Department publishes daily bus passenger data for Great Britain outside London and London as part of the daily domestic transport use by mode publication, which is updated monthly: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.
The Department also published daily local bus passenger and trip data by Local Transport Authority as Official Statistics in Development last year: https://www.gov.uk/government/statisticaldata-sets/bus-statistics-data-tables#local-bus-passenger-journeys-bus01. These are undergoing further development and testing with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Current data limitations include no data held for London and incomplete coverage for England outside London.
For this latter release, the Department plans to continue developing the data source, publish an updated set in due course and move towards more regular updates in future. Decisions on the precise timing, frequency and level of detail, including the potential production of statistics monthly, will be informed by ongoing work to improve data quality, coverage and user value.