Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential for (a) Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil and (b) other biofuels to decarbonise railways pending full electrification.
Answered by Huw Merriman
In Decarbonising Transport: a Better, Greener Britain, the government committed to deliver a net zero rail network by 2050. Our ambition is to remove all diesel-only trains (passenger and freight) from the network by 2040. As we decarbonise the railway, we are working with GBRTT to bring forward costed options for government to carefully consider in terms of overall deliverability and affordability. This will involve working closely with operators and manufacturers on assessing and deploying the most appropriate traction technology. This includes electrification, alternate fuels (such as Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil), as well as hydrogen, battery or bi-mode and hybrid traction technology.
The Low Carbon Fuel Strategy, which the Department intends to publish later this year, will set out possible scenarios for the deployment of low carbon fuels across all transport sectors out to 2050.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to improve access for (a) disabled and (b) all users of electric vehicle charging points.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
As the transition to electric vehicles (EV) accelerates, it is important that public chargepoints are easily accessible to all those who need to use them, including disabled and elderly people. Working alongside the disability charity, Motability, the Government commissioned the British Standards Institution (BSI) to produce a new accessibility standard.
A world first of its kind, the Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 1899 was published on 11 October 2022, and lays out best practice on designing and installing accessible public EV chargepoints.
Compliance with PAS 1899 is voluntary. However, the Government is actively encouraging relevant parties to adopt its specifications, building on improvements already being made in the sector. Several local authorities receiving Local EV Infrastructure Pilot funding are already considering PAS 1899 and accessibility in their plans for chargepoint rollout.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority on Flybe being placed in administration.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Department speaks to the Civil Aviation Authority regularly and have spoken to them multiple times over the last few days as they respond to the situation and provide advice to passengers to help them make their journeys as smoothly and affordably as possible. Whilst this is a commercial decision for the company, it is a challenging time for staff, and it is welcome news that airlines are keen to take on many of their staff.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chief Executive of Belfast City Airport on taking steps to support employees at the airport who are affected by Flybe being placed in administration.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In the early hours of the morning of Saturday 28 January, Flybe Limited ceased trading. This was a commercial decision by the board of the company. The Government recognises that this will be a difficult time for Flybe’s passengers and staff. The immediate priority has been to support people travelling home and employees who have lost their jobs.
Aviation is a devolved matter. However, officials at the Department for Transport have contacted Belfast City Airport to discuss the impacts of the announcement and have also been in contact with the Northern Ireland Department for Communities (DfC), as they are responsible for jobseeker support and related services in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on Flybe being placed in administration.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In the early hours of the morning of Saturday 28 January, Flybe Limited ceased trading. This was a commercial decision by the board of the company.
The Government recognises that this will be a difficult time for Flybe’s passengers and staff. The immediate priority has been to support people travelling home and employees who have lost their jobs.
Aviation is broadly a devolved matter, although officials at the Department for Transport engage regularly with the Welsh Government on aviation policy. No discussions have taken place between the Department for Transport and the Welsh Government in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Flybe, as the airline did not operate scheduled services in Wales.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps she has taken to increase the number of qualified HGV drivers in the UK.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government has taken decisive action to address the HGV driver shortage putting in place 33 short, medium and long-term interventions to date to help alleviate the existing HGV driver shortages. The Department for Transport has also provided grant funding for the non-profit initiative Road to Logistics to train military service leavers, ex-offenders and the long term unemployed to move into jobs in the logistics sector, including lorry driving.
To meet demand, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has increased the supply of driving tests. The average number of vocational test slots is now around 2,800 per week compared to a pre-pandemic 1,500 tests. Despite the increase in demand for licences, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is processing all vocational applications within the normal turnaround time of 5 working days.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had recent discussions with the Welsh Government on making an estimate of the number of newly qualified HGV drivers in Wales in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The number of drivers with an address in Wales who have passed an HGV driving test in the last 3 years are 1,672 in 2020, 2,666 in 2021 and 3,046 in 2022 to date.
However, this data may include instances of the same driver passing both the Category C and CE tests. In addition, some of the drivers with HGV driving licence entitlement may be employed in other occupations such as the Armed Forces or Fire Service.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many members of staff have left his Department since 12 December 2019.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Since December 2019, the number of staff who have left the central Department for Transport is 1,063.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the route network operated at Heathrow Airport.
Answered by Robert Courts
The UK aviation market operates predominately in the private sector. Airports invest in their infrastructure to attract passengers and airlines, while airlines are well placed to deliver services to their customers by responding to demand for different routes. The route network at Heathrow is determined by airlines based on their own assessments.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what most recent discussions he has had with the management of EasyJet.
Answered by Robert Courts
I chair the weekly Strategic Risk Group, as the Minister for Aviation, which brings together senior executives from across the aviation sector. easyJet have been a central part of this group and were also invited to the meeting held by the Aviation Minister and the Secretary of State on 1 June. On 12 July I visited easyJets data centre at Luton Airport.
As part of regular engagements over the summer DfT senior officials have been meeting weekly with easyJet management.