Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the safety of (a) horses and (b) horse riders on roads.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Government takes the safety of horse riders and other vulnerable road users very seriously and is committed to reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on England’s roads.
Following Parliamentary approval, The Highway Code was updated on 29 January 2022 to include changes to improve safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people in Canterbury with a medical condition have been waiting more than a year for a new driving licence.
Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
While the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) holds this information, due to the very low number of cases, it is being withheld because it is considered to be personal information that could lead to the identification of an individual.
The DVLA has to consider whether releasing the information would breach any of the data protection principles. In this instance, it would not be fair to release information that could lead to the identification of individuals.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the limited availability of practical driving tests following the covid-19 outbreak, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the validity of a successful driving theory test to three years.
Answered by Karl McCartney
It is important road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point a person drives unsupervised for the first time.
The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place to ensure a candidate’s road safety knowledge and ability to identify developing hazards is current. This validity period is set in legislation and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.
Ensuring new drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the preparation of new drivers, who are disproportionality represented in casualty statistics. Learners will therefore need to pass another theory test if their certificate expires.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of delays in processing Passenger Carrying Vehicle licences by the DVLA on the availability of bus drivers in (a) Kent and (b) the UK.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
During October the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) focussed extra resource on vocational driving licence applications to support the driver shortage. This has been successful with routine applications for vocational driving licences, including for passenger carrying vehicles, now being processed within normal turnaround times of five working days. In the seven days to 12 November, nearly 60% more vocational licences were processed compared to a similar period in 2019. It may take longer to process cases where medical investigations are needed.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consultation officials in his Department undertook with commuters prior to the introduction of flexible rail season ticketing.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department commissioned quantitative and qualitative research to assess potential interest in flexible season tickets amongst rail users and non-users.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the backlog in driving theory test availability in (a) Canterbury and (b) Kent; and what steps he is taking to clear that backlog.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Since April, to clear the backlog of driving theory tests, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has extended theory test centre opening hours, where conditions allow, creating 300,000 extra theory test appointments. From 6 September, the contract for running theory test centres is to be split into three regions and the number of theory test centres in Great Britain will increase from 180 to 202.
The forward booking dates for driving theory tests in (a) Canterbury is 8 weeks, and in (b) Kent is 6 weeks.