Sally-Ann Hart
Main Page: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)Department Debates - View all Sally-Ann Hart's debates with the Department for Transport
(2 years, 11 months ago)
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Grant Shapps
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend and his Select Committee for the excellent work that they do on this subject and many others. Of course, like him, I look to the scientists to provide the evidence as to what should be the appropriate level of testing at any stage. Just to reassure him, while we will most likely need to start off with PCR tests, I have incorporated three separate checkpoints during this process, the first of which is on 28 June, when we will look at the rules guiding this in order to make them as low as they can possibly be while at the same time making sure that we maintain the hard-won gains of the British people in this lockdown.
Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
David Johnston (Wantage) (Con)
Sally-Ann Hart [V]
Beautiful Hastings and Rye has an extensive rural area and low population density, making practical and affordable public transport difficult to provide. However, accessible and affordable transport is a lifeline for many rural residents. Transport for the South East has highlighted the need for integrated transport approaches with better integrated transport hubs to achieve efficient provision of transport services, including integrated timetables, ticketing and fares, among other measures. What steps is my hon. Friend taking to facilitate innovation and new services in rural transport?
Andrew Stephenson
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. We have established the rural mobility fund worth £20 million to trial more demand-responsive services, and we have awarded funding to 17 pilot projects already. We have also published a call for evidence for the future of transport rural strategy that sought views on how rural communities can benefit best from transport innovation.