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 potential implications for her policies of (a) Australia’s National Freight Data Hub, (b) the United States’ Commodity Flow Survey and (c) the Republic of Korea’s Transport Database on (i) monitoring driver welfare, (ii) rest provision and working conditions and (iii) fatigue-related risk across the freight and logistics system.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As noted in the answer of 18 March 2026 to Question 120682, the Department for Transport recognises the value of international comparisons for its work, including (a) Australia’s National Freight Data Hub, (b) the United States’ Commodity Flow Survey and (c) the Republic of Korea’s Transport Database.
No formal assessments of the type described have been made for the comparators listed, but they are important parts of the Department's broad evidence base for policy making that supports freight and logistics and the wider transport system.
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 potential impact on a) drivers of extending the electric car grant; and b) motorcyclists of the planned cessation of the Plug-in Motorcycle Grant.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £2 billion Electric Car Grant has been extended to 2030 to support drivers to purchase electric vehicles by reducing upfront costs. More than 90,000 people have already benefited from grants of up to £3,750 across 45 models.
In February 2025, we announced the decision to close the Plug-in Motorcycle Grant, which closed at the end of the 2025/26 financial year. Ending the £500 Plug-in Motorcycle Grant is not expected to have a significant impact on uptake of zero emission motorcycles or on riders. The Government, working with industry, will continue to monitor the development of the zero emission motorcycle market and the need for any further interventions on an ongoing basis.
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 the written ministerial statement of 23 March 2026 on Rail Infrastructure, HCWS1433, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of reducing the operating speed of HS2 on passenger capacity.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has requested that Mark Wild look at ways to remove gold plating and complexity from the HS2 project, and if a slightly reduced specification could save time and money. We will not make the same mistakes of the past of making changes to scope without understanding all of the impacts, including on passenger capacity. We will not take any decisions until this work is complete.
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 25 March 2026 to WPQ 121808, what proportion of the Customer and Communities Designated Fund within the Road Investment Strategy 3 is allocated to (a) HGV parking capacity and (b) driver welfare facilities; and what targets have been set for delivery of additional HGV parking spaces over the RIS3 period.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Further detail on RIS3 funding allocations will be set out by National Highways in its Delivery Plan.
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 March 2026 to Question 116574, what minimum number of public electric vehicle chargepoints her Department considers necessary by 2030 to meet anticipated demand; and how she will determine whether delivery is on track in the absence of a defined benchmark.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
An estimate of potential future demand for chargers was originally published in the 2022 “Taking Charge: The National Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy” and was updated in 2024 to a range of 250,000 to 550,000 in 2030. Both the 2024 NAO ‘public chargepoints for electric vehicles’ report, and the Climate Change Committee 2025 Progress report, concluded that charge point rollout is on track.
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 30 March 2026 to Question 123517 on Electric Vehicles: Costs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of introducing requirements for standardised battery state of health information on the (a) regulatory burden on (i) manufacturers and (ii) sellers and (b) used electric vehicle prices.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
On 13 April 2026, the Department launched a public consultation on updating the minimum emission standards for new road vehicles to Euro 7.
Assessment of the impact of introducing these requirements will be included within the regulatory impact assessment accompanying any proposed legislation. Responses to the public consultation will be taken into account when completing this assessment.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when her Department will respond to the consultation entitled Changes to various permitted development rights for EV charging.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department ran a consultation between November 2025 and January 2026, seeking views on changes to permitted development rights for cross-pavement charging solutions and equipment housing. The Department will publish its response shortly.
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 120940, on what date the update to the road freight values of time in the Transport Analysis Guidance will be published.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are planning to publish the road freight value of travel time updates as definitive changes to the Transport Analysis Guidance on 28th May.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had discussions with his Ukrainian counterparts regarding the fit of a) uniform and b) body armour for female soldiers in combat operations, and whether his Department has discussed lessons learnt from the Government of Ukraine.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence remains firmly committed to ensuring that all service personnel are equipped with appropriate and effective protective equipment. As part of this commitment, we are delivering an update to body armour for UK personnel through the Tactical Ballistic Plates project.
Procurement experts within the National Armaments Director group work closely with the Ministry of Defence's Op INTERFLEX Handling and Processing team, which collates feedback from Armed Forces of Ukraine personnel. This includes lessons from operational experience and female user feedback, which help to inform UK capability development.
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 (DVSA) were (a) in post and (b) delivering practical car driving tests in i) January 2026, ii) February 2026 and iii) March 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The answer to Question 122532, 20 March 2026, provides data for the months January 2026 and February 2026 respectively.
The table below shows how many full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners were in post, and out of those, how many were available to deliver practical car driving tests in March 2026.
FTE DEs in-post * | Available to deliver practical car driving tests |
1649.13 | 1,604 |
* - Includes those who are in training to be a driving examiner.