Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will publish the analysis commissioned to inform the motorcycles in bus lanes consultation.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department will publish the report on the Department’s website as soon as is practical and will place a copy in the libraries of both Houses.
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 18 March 2026 to Question 119493, what roles and functions the 210 staff transferring to DfT Operator Ltd on 1 April 2026 will undertake; from which directorates and business units within her Department those staff are being transferred; how many of those staff are employed in rail policy, rail operations and rail contracting functions; what proportion of those roles are newly created as part of the transition to public ownership; and what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of those transfers on staffing capacity within the core Department.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The functions in scope to transfer from DfT to DFTO include the majority of the Rail Services Group, as well as a small number of teams in the Rail Reform and Strategy Group and the Corporate Delivery Group.
The majority of roles transferring relate to rail policy, rail operations and rail contracting functions, with the exception of a few supporting and administrative roles. The final number of people transferring may change before 1 April due to new joiners and leavers in the 210 roles currently in scope to transfer.
None of the roles in scope to transfer are newly created, as the transition to public ownership is delivered through existing teams, including the Public Ownership Programme Directorate.
In preparation for the transfer the Department has mobilised a new sponsorship model and team, ensuring capacity in the Department and a simplified interface with DFTO.
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 assessed the implications for its policies of findings from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency indicating that hybrid vehicles experience approximately 3,475 fires per 100,000 vehicles compared to around 1,500 per 100,000 for petrol and diesel vehicles; and what discussions her Department has had with international counterparts on comparative vehicle fire risk data.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The safety of hybrid-electric vehicles is of paramount importance to the Government and is kept under regular review.
According to data from Thatcham Research, 2022, which compares claims data from the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register against the number of that powertrain on the roads, hybrids are on average less likely to be involved in a fire than their petrol or diesel counterparts. The proportion of hybrids involved in fires per year is reported by Thatcham as 3 per 100,000, compared with petrol at 7 per 100,000 and diesel at 11 per 100,000.
There are stringent requirements already in place for hybrid vehicles (as there are for all road vehicles). UNECE Regulation No. 100, as applied in GB Type Approval, ensures hybrid EV (fire) safety through requirements to minimise fire risks associated with high-voltage components. The United Kingdom, along with international partners, plays an active role in the development of these regulations, which are informed by research and data from across the world.
The same research indicates that the risk of fire is lower still in battery electric vehicles - 1 per 100,000 per year.
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 116584 on Aviation: Colour Vision Deficiency, what independent analysis reported that only the CAD test and anomaloscopes when used correctly have 100% sensitivity and specificity when assessing colour vision.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The analysis in question is a paper from a French research group that was published in a peer reviewed journal in 2018. The reference is:
Marechal M, Delbarre M, Tesson J et al. Color vision tests in pilots’ medical assessments. Aerosp Med Hum Perform August 2018; 89(8): 737-743.
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 of the six-day minimum hire threshold on the proportion of zero emission vehicles counted towards the Government Fleet Commitment.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The scope of the Government Fleet Commitment relates to vehicles that are owned or leased by HMG, and to hire vehicles used for six days or more. Short term vehicle hires, which can happen at short notice, are subject to vehicle availability at the time and the policies of each hire company.
The Greening Government Commitments, which include the GFC, are currently under review to ensure that they remain aligned with Government priorities. Departments are expected to continue to take action to reduce their impact on the environment, including working with lease operators and hire companies to minimise the carbon intensity of their fleets and rental vehicles.
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 February 2026 to Question 111871, whether any net financial efficiency savings are expected to be attributable to Network Rail from the technology and systems investments, after accounting for their up-front and ongoing costs; and what estimate her Department has made of the net cost or benefit of those investments.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail will write to you on this issue and incorporate a response to your question into its response to a similar question asked previously by Jerome Mayhew MP.
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 plans to reopen or replace the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator programme for new applicants in 2026.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is not planning to re-open the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator to new applications.
On 25 March, Government announced £1 billion in funding to support the rollout of zero emission HGVs up to 2030, including the Zero Emission Truck and Van grants and the Depot Charging Scheme.
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 118042, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of click-through rates on the number of successful appointments to driving examiner roles.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
For driving examiner recruitment campaigns up to November 2025, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) used 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, the agency 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. DVSA will cross-reference the data from these two surveys going forward, but for now DVSA has data for only one complete and one ongoing campaign.
For DVSA social media advertising, the current click through rate as of February 2026 was 1.4%. For DVSA direct communications that have been sent to subscribers of jobs at DVSA over the last 12 months, the average click through rate was 4%. It is not possible to say what number of these click throughs resulted in completed or successful applications.
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 118042, what steps the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency is taking to improve the collection and use of recruitment data for driving examiner vacancies.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
For driving examiner recruitment campaigns up to November 2025, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) used 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, the agency 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. DVSA will cross-reference the data from these two surveys going forward, but for now DVSA has data for only one complete and one ongoing campaign.
For DVSA social media advertising, the current click through rate as of February 2026 was 1.4%. For DVSA direct communications that have been sent to subscribers of jobs at DVSA over the last 12 months, the average click through rate was 4%. It is not possible to say what number of these click throughs resulted in completed or successful applications.
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 16 March 2026 to Question 119471 on the Vehicle Certification Agency, what the estimated financial deficit of the Vehicle Certification Agency is in monetary terms and as a percentage of full cost recovery; what assessment her Department has made of the causes of that deficit; whether the Vehicle Certification Agency should operate on a full cost recovery basis.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) reported a net deficit of £8.778m in its accounts for the 2024/25 financial year. Income was reported at £22.252m against costs of £31.031m
The hourly rate charged by the VCA for technical work has not increased since 2006.
Chapter 6 of Managing Public Money, instructs government agencies that the standard approach is to “…set charges to recover full costs”, the intention of which is to “…make sure that the government neither profits at the expense of consumers nor makes a loss for taxpayers to subsidise it.”