Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the delay to repairs at Bransty Tunnel on the Cumbrian Coast Line, including (a) the reasons why no works have commenced eight months after closure, (b) the status of environmental permitting with the Environment Agency, and (c) the expected timetable for the start of works and full reopening of the line.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail is responsible for the delivery of works at Bransty Tunnel, and my officials are supporting Network Rail on this matter.
The issue at Bransty Tunnel was identified when Network Rail, as part of routine planned maintenance and renewals, undertook ground investigations that revealed unstable conditions within the tunnel resulting from historic mining activity in the area. This is linked to the ochreous water discharge at Whitehaven harbour.
Given the remnants of the mining activity, and large amounts of flowing water, a much larger, more complex package of work than was originally anticipated is needed to rectify these poor conditions, leading to the extended closure of the tunnel.
A dedicated Network Rail Whitehaven Recovery Taskforce is now in place to address the flooding and structural issues at Bransty Tunnel linked to the historic mining activity. Detailed inspections are complete, and a permanent £49 million repair solution has been independently verified and is ready to be delivered. This includes water management, tunnel stabilisation, and subsequent track and drainage renewal.
Although Network Rail has agreed to progress, agreement is needed with the Environment Agency and the Mining Remediation Authority before on-site work can commence due to environmental and regulatory requirements. DfT Operator’s rail environment team is supporting this.
Network Rail is working closely with the Mining Remediation Authority and the Environment Agency to align the necessary environmental consents so that water contamination issues can be addressed alongside the repairs.
Network Rail will provide a further public update once work can begin. Delivery is expected to take six to nine months.
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 19 March 2026 to Question 121208 on A14: Trees, whether the work to remove redundant biodegradable and plastic tree guards along the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme has commenced; and what the expected completion date is.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
National Highways has commenced work to remove redundant biodegradable and plastic tree guards along the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme. To date, around 36,000 redundant tree guards have been removed, and the work is expected to be completed by May 2026.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the monthly average waiting time was for a car practical driving test at each driving test centre and zone for a) March and b) April 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The attached spreadsheet (WPQ-00066787) shows the average waiting time for car practical driving tests at each driving test centre, and zone, for March 2026. This data is based on the national average waiting time metric of when a minimum of 10% of test slots are available.
Data for April 2026 will be available in May 2026.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency also records national median waiting time data (the time between the first test booking and test taken) for practical car driving tests. In March 2026 this was 9 weeks. This data, broken down by test centre and zone, is currently not available for March and April 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 23 March 2026 to Question 121577 on Roads: Carbon Emissions, how much is the total additional cost to the public purse of the one-year extension to the Live Labs 2 programme; and if she will set out how that cost is being funded.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport will provide up to £300,000 to support a one-year extension to the Live Labs 2 innovation programme. This will help councils access and adopt more innovative approaches to highways maintenance, including uptake of longer-lasting, low-carbon materials for repairing roads more quickly, more efficiently and less often.
This will be funded from departmental budgets agreed at the Spending Review.
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 23 March 2026 to Question 121903 on Driving Tests: Vacancies, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of holding centrally a snapshot of the total number of driving examiner vacancies by calendar month.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Monthly driving examiner vacancy figures have limited value because numbers change frequently due to demand, training, turnover and capacity. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency manages its workforce flexibly, matching examiner numbers to demand and using a test centre level view to support recruitment and deployment.
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 10 March 2026 to Question 117050 on A34: Safety, whether the road marking renewal works on the A34 from Chieveley to the M40 have now been completed; and if she will provide an updated timetable for completion if those works remain ongoing.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The programme of road marking renewal works on the A34 between Chieveley and the M40 is largely complete. One remaining closure is still required to complete the final element of the works, and National Highways is working with the local highway authority to minimise disruption. All remaining works should be complete by the summer.
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 13 March 2026 to Question 118274 on M1: Repairs and Maintenance, whether the roadworks on the M1 northbound between junctions 12 and 13 have been completed.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Repairs to the central reservation drainage on the M1 (Northbound) between junctions 12 and 13 have been completed. All traffic management was removed on 30 March 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 26 March 2026 to Question 122287 on Motor Vehicles: Hire Services, how many category M1 and N1 vehicles are exempt from the Government Fleet Commitment by default; and if she will provide a breakdown of that number by vehicle type.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Data for the Greening Government Commitments framework for 2021-25, including the Government Fleet Commitment (GFC), was collected by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and published on GOV.UK, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-government-commitments-april-2021-to-march-2024-report.
Reporting for the GFC was required for in-scope vehicles only. Neither DEFRA nor the Department for Transport holds further data on vehicles that are exempted by default across Government fleets.
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 26 March 2026 to Question 121006, when the planned review of the funding formula for highways maintenance will commence.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Any review would be conducted to align with the end of the period for which highways maintenance block allocations have already been made.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many births recorded in the Maternity Services Dataset have been associated with the SNOMED CT codes i) 125678001, ii) 699110007, iii) 1269487002, iv) 1269486006 and v) 842009 in each year since the introduction of that coding within that dataset.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Validated data for the codes requested is not available. Guidance published in September 2024 set out how consanguinity and related information should be recorded however this guidance is not mandatory. Recording of these codes has been undertaken by a small number of NHS trusts to date.