Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - 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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
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 (Labour - 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 - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
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 (Labour - 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 (Labour - 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 (Labour - 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 - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
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 (Labour - 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 Rachel Maclean
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.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the backlog in practical driving test availability in (a) Canterbury and (b) Kent; and what steps he is taking to tackle that backlog.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
To clear the backlog of car practical driving tests, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has put in place a number of measures to increase test slots. These include offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays). The DVSA has also started a recruitment campaign to increase the number of examiners.
The aim is to increase testing capacity and reduce the backlog as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining a COVID-secure service for customers and examiners.
The forward booking dates for car practical driving tests in (a) Canterbury is 9 weeks, and in (b) Kent is 13 weeks.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of the Government taking a financial stake in Eurostar, in response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As is the case with businesses in other sectors, Ministers and officials have closely monitored the financial impact of Covid-19 on the international transport sector, including Eurostar, since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Department continues to work closely with Eurostar to consider all commercial financing options available to the company, which include drawing on existing support schemes where eligible and appropriate. We are also in discussions with the French Government regarding Eurostar’s financial situation.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the eligibility of the disabled person's bus pass to cover peak services.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Under the terms of The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme a holder of a concessionary bus pass is able to travel between 09.30am and 11.00pm on weekdays and all day at weekends and on Bank Holidays.
This area is kept under review. The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme costs around £1 billion annually so any changes, such as extending the concession to include morning peak time travel, would need to be carefully considered for their impact on the scheme’s financial sustainability.
Local authorities in England have the power to offer additional local concessions, such as extending the hours of the concession, and three quarters of authorities already do so.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many vouchers have been claimed under the Fix Your Bike scheme.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As of 3 November, 62,101 Fix Your Bike vouchers have been allocated to members of the public.