Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will publish all documents relating to plans to evacuate Great Yarmouth constituency due to the docking of the MV Ruby.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Decisions regarding evacuation of local populations are taken based on the local assessment of risk and impacts by local authorities and local emergency services cooperating as a Strategic Coordination Group (SCG) to ensure an effective local response.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of officials in her Department were hired via positive action schemes in the last financial year.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Seven officials have been hired by the Department at AO and EO grades via the Civil Service ‘Going Forward into Employment’ schemes in the last financial year.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate she has made of the (a) cost of building HS2 and (b) impact of HS2 on economic growth in the next 10 years; and what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the lessons learned from the construction of Crossrail.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
HS2 has faced increases in costs since delivery started and this needs to end and the programme must be brought under control. The Secretary of State has asked Mark Wild, the new CEO of HS2 Ltd, to review the remaining scope, the cost and schedule needed to complete phase 1 of the programme, and advise the government on what is needed.
Despite its challenges, HS2 is delivering, and will deliver long-term benefits for people and places. The programme is currently supporting over 31,700 jobs, and it will support wider economic growth, including the delivery of tens of thousands of new homes. A report commissioned by HS2, ‘From Trains to Cranes’, included analysis estimating that HS2 will drive a £10 billion annual uplift within the West Midlands area over the next 10 years (https://www.hs2.org.uk/about-us/our-documents/from-trains-to-cranes-hs2-and-the-west-midlands-development-boom/).
Action is being taken to learn lessons from Phase 1 of HS2, as well as previous programmes such as Crossrail. The Department has commissioned an independent review of the governance and assurance of the Department’s major infrastructure projects, drawing primarily on the experiences of HS2. The review, which is led by James Stewart, is part of the Department’s on-going programme of work to learn lessons from HS2 and its other major projects, such as Crossrail.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many international (a) air miles and (b) flights have been completed by (i) Ministers and (ii) officials in their Department since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Data on minister’s overseas travel and on senior civil servant’s business expenses is published on a quarterly basis. This can be found here:
Information for the period July to October is due for publication shortly.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that women can only be strip-searched by British Transport Police officers who were female at birth.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The British Transport Police (BTP) is operationally independent. Chief Constables must ensure that their force policies comply with all legal obligations, including under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and Equalities Act 2010.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of people affected by train delays in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not hold information on the number of people affected by train delays. Rail industry data measures train delays. The Office of Rail and Road publishes quarterly and periodic (four-weekly) statistics on punctuality, reliability and causes of delay for passenger trains operating on the mainline network in Great Britain.
This data set includes the percentage of recorded station stops that were arrived at ‘On Time’ (early or less than one minute after the scheduled time).
Table: Proportion of recorded station stops that were arrived at ‘On Time’, Great Britain
2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
64.5% | 63.2% | 62.0% | 62.8% | 63.5% | 65.0% | 79.8% | 73.1% | 67.8% | 67.6% |
Source: Table 3138 - Train punctuality at recorded station stops by operator (periodic), Office of Rail and Road Note: Financial year ending 31 March
These statistics can be found on the passenger rail performance data portal at the following link:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will provide a breakdown by place of birth of all new driving licence applications in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost as a scan of the DVLA’s driving licence database and subsequent manual scrutiny and organisation of the data would be necessary to obtain the information requested.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which wildlife protection projects relate to HS2 works; and what the cost is of each.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
HS2 must meet regulatory and legal requirements to protect existing wildlife and is also committed to a target of ‘No Net Loss’ in biodiversity. HS2 Ltd therefore deploys an adaptive approach to wildlife protection and environmental mitigation. The design and construction of HS2 is required to meet legislative and regulatory requirements, and HS2 Ltd’s proposals for mitigation are subject to review, inspection and guidance from the regulators to ensure mitigations are in place to protect wildlife.
HS2 is an integrated scheme where routine wildlife protection costs are accounted for within the overall costs, except for a number of specific structures. It is therefore not feasible to immediately isolate a proportion of the costs for the mitigation required for wildlife protection, which is an ongoing responsibility as construction continues and circumstances on the ground continue to develop.
Once constructed, the new HS2 railway will result in over 33 km2 of habitats being in place for species to use, a significant amount of which is directly provided as part of HS2’s commitment to wildlife protection.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the total number of minutes is that trains have been delayed in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Delays affecting Trains in Great Britain | |
Year | Total Number of Delay Minutes |
01/04/14 - 31/03/15 | 12,939,361 |
01/04/15 - 31/03/16 | 13,681,340 |
01/04/16 - 31/03/17 | 14,685,985 |
01/04/17 - 31/03/18 | 14,830,151 |
01/04/18 - 31/03/19 | 16,743,884 |
01/04/19 - 31/03/20 | 16,952,755 |
01/04/20 - 31/03/21 | 6,745,965 |
01/04/21 - 31/03/22 | 10,486,810 |
01/04/22 - 31/03/23 | 13,734,944 |
01/04/23 - 31/03/24 | 15,499,548 |
Note: | |
Delay minutes affecting all passenger operators, excluding private or charter operators. | |
Includes all delay minutes which are allocated to incidents which are attributed a reason and a responsible owner. | |
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of using (a) AI and (b) automation for rail reforms; and if she will have discussions with (i) Network Rail and (ii) train operators on the potential impact of those bodies using (A) AI on (B) automation on costs (1) for rail passengers and (2) to the public purse.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department recognises the potentially transformative role that technologies such as Artificial Intelligence can play across all transport modes, including rail.
Within rail, these technologies have the potential to deliver step-change improvements in several areas, including to the passenger experience, train positioning and control, infrastructure and asset management, safety management, energy management and emissions control.
My officials continue to work closely with Shadow Great British Railways and other rail industry bodies including Network Rail and the Rail Safety and Standards Board to ensure that the benefits of these technologies are fully recognised and realised.