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 5 December 2025 to Question 94913 on Great British Railways, whether (a) growing revenue or (b) delivering value for money for passengers takes priority in the rollout of Great British Railways branding.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Both growing revenue and delivering value for money for passengers will be a priority.
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 9 December 2025 to Question 96704 on Great British Railways, if she will publish any internal implementation plans, programme plans, timelines, milestone documents or transition frameworks for the establishment of Great British Railways.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As set out in previous answers, the Great British Railways (GBR) design process is underway. We expect to stand up GBR within 12 months of the Railways Bill receiving Royal Assent.
We are developing our implementation plans as part of the GBR design process now and will share those in due course.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many used electric vehicles were sold in (a) November 2025 and (b) each month since July 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport does not hold this information.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for each month since July 2024, how many driving test centres recorded the maximum waiting time of 24 weeks for a practical car test; and if she will publish a list of those test centres for each month since.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The attached Excel document (Table for UIN 101472) shows which driving test centres had a waiting time of 24 weeks in each month from July 2024 to November 2025.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the net zero targets are for (a) their Department and (b) its arm’s-length bodies; and whether guidance has been issued on adopting net zero targets earlier than 2050.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport (DfT), the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Office of Rail and Road (ORR), Trinity House, Transport Focus, the Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain, the Civil Aviation Authority, and Active Travel England (ATE) are committed to achieving the UK Government’s Net Zero Carbon target by 2050. The Department for Transport also holds policy responsibility for ensuring greenhouse gas emissions from in-use transport and transport infrastructure construction reduce in line with the legislated economy-wide target of net zero by 2050.
The position in terms of other Department for Transport bodies is set out below.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) supports the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy. This includes reducing fuel lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, 80 per cent by 2040, and achieving zero emissions by 2050.
All other arm’s-length bodies will be expected to adopt the existing 2050 target or develop their own based on their operational impacts.
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 2 December 2025 to Question 96256 on Railways: Tickets, how the proportion of rail journeys using fully digital tickets varies between train operating companies in November 2025 and in each month since and including July 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not hold this information at this level. The Rail Delivery Group and individual train operating companies hold the data.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the net zero targets for their Department and its arm’s-length bodies are; and what guidance has been issued to those bodies on adopting net zero targets earlier than 2050.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Net Zero target in the Climate Change Act 2008, is a target for the whole of the UK, not individual departments or arms-length bodies.
Greening Government Commitments are the central framework setting out the actions UK government departments and their agencies will take to reduce their impacts on the environment, including setting targets to reduce emissions, during the framework period.
Defra are reviewing the Greening Government Commitments to ensure that they remain aligned with government priorities.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many electric vehicles owned or leased by their Department or its arm’s-length bodies are allocated to (a) asylum accommodation operations, (b) migrant transportation, or (c) related contractor-led services; and for what operational purposes those vehicles are used.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information sought is not collected and would only be available at disproportionate cost
All readily available information on HO EV vehicles and infrastructure was provided in response to UIN: 87860.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what engagement her Department has had with the British Standards Institute’s review of BS AU 145e; and what assessment she has made of proposals to ban raised 3D and 4D number plates.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is part of the British Standard Institute committee that has recently reviewed the current standard for number plates. The committee has put forward proposed amendments which are intended to stop the production of number plates with raised characters often referred to as 3D or 4D number plates and will prevent easy access to plates with ‘ghost’ characteristics. The proposals will also prevent suppliers from adding acrylic letters and numbers to the surface of the number, meaning any finished number plate must be flat. The proposed changes have been subject to a public consultation which closed on 13 December 2025.
The Government has set out its intention in the Road Safety Strategy to consult on addressing the growing problem of illegal number plates, including ‘ghost’ number plates.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle wildfires in 2026.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises that the impact of climate change is likely to increase and intensify fire incidents in England and Wales – with potential to impact fire and rescue service’s (FRS) resources, capacity, and strategical response.
As the lead government department for wildfire, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) maintains regular and ongoing engagement with other government departments including the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and Cabinet Office on this national risk. This is alongside the department’s work with national bodies including the National Fire Chiefs Council and England and Wales Wildfire Forum to monitor and review sector led improvements and mitigations.
Since 2024 we have also funded a National Resilience Wildfire Advisor to assess what additional wildfire national capabilities might be needed to increase resilience to the wildfire risk and to ensure coordination of approaches across the sector.