Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage people to participate in Active Travel such as riding a bike to and from work.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The many ways in which the Government is supporting active travel are summarised in the statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, which was published in in April 2017. The Department also undertook a major cycling and walking safety review in 2018, and published its response and a detailed action plan in November 2018. Around £2 billion is now being invested in cycling and walking over this Parliament. To encourage people to cycle to work, the Government’s Cycle to Work Scheme allows employers to loan cycles and cyclists' safety equipment to employees as a tax-free benefit. The Department is reviewing and updating its guidance on the scheme and is due to publish a revised version later in 2019.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many applications his Department has received for European Conference of Ministers of Transport permits since November 2018; and how many such permits have been provided.
Answered by Lord Grayling
The Department received applications for a total of 11,392 permits from 1,991 operator licence holders. Following the application of allocation criteria previously set out to the House, 984 ECMT annual permits have been allocated to operators and a further 2,832 short term permits will start to be allocated by March 2019. The Government has secured additional ECMT permits for 2019 and is in discussions with road haulage stakeholders on the process for allocating these. While hauliers are keen to have certainty on ECMT permits, the Government does not expect these to be primary means of securing market access to the EU for UK hauliers, given good progress on the EU Commission’s proposal on reciprocal access, unilateral measures and bilateral agreements.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to (a) encourage and (b) promote uptake in the Cycle to Work scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Cycle to Work scheme is one of the many ways in which the Government is supporting cycling, as set out in the 2017 Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. Officials from the Department for Transport, Her Majesty’s Treasury and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs are currently finalising a review of the current guidance on the Cycle to Work scheme to provide greater clarity for employers on how the scheme works. The Department is planning to publish the revised guidance shortly.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Airline Insolvency Review interim report, published by his Department on 12 July 2018, if he will make it his policy to (a) take steps in response to the final findings of the report and (b) take steps to set up a comprehensive model of insolvency and repatriation protection for consumers.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Airline Insolvency Review is an independent review commissioned by government following the collapse of Monarch Airlines in 2017. Publication is expected in the coming months. Once the report is published, the Department will consider the recommendations of the review and take steps accordingly to ensure a strong level of protection for consumers in the event of airline failure, with minimal impact to the taxpayer.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether seafarer certificates remain valid within Europe after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Seafarer qualifications are issued and recognised in accordance with the international convention on the Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping (STCW) 1978, as amended. This is an international Convention that is applicable to all seafarers working at sea.
The UK will continue to recognise seafarer qualifications in accordance with procedures set out in the Convention, which will not be affected by our departure from the EU. A well-established system already exists in the relevant EU legislation for recognition of certificates issued by third countries and to date over 45 countries are recognised.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has allocated to the introduction of autonomous vehicles onto UK roads.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Since 2014, the Department for Transport has allocated £10.85m to research and development relating to automated vehicles. This includes £7.75m of funding towards the 4 Cities Driverless Cars project, and £3.1m towards the lorry platooning trials on the Strategic Road Network.
Overall, the Government is investing over £250m in connected and autonomous vehicle technologies, up to 2021, with the remainder coming through the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy. This is being match-funded by industry: its purpose is to create a world leading testing and development ecosystem in the UK. To date, this funding is supporting 73 collaborative R&D projects and 4 capital testing infrastructure investments.