Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has modelled the potential impact of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate on the number of passengers beginning journeys from overseas airports.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Mandate cost benefit analysis did not make a specific assessment of the impact of the number of passengers beginning journeys from overseas airports.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what changes have been made of the remuneration of coastguards in the last 12 months.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In the past 12 months, the MCA have made two changes in hourly remuneration:
Station Officers are Coastguard Rescue Officers who undertake additional activities as part of the response by Coastguard Rescue Teams and receive enhanced remuneration.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the disparity between the level of NHS demand for nurses and the lack of employment opportunities for newly qualified nursing graduates; and what steps his Department is taking to address this.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Nurses play a vital role across the National Health Service and wider health and care system, and the Department and NHS England are committed to ensuring newly qualified nurses can access meaningful employment opportunities after graduation.
NHS England is actively monitoring the position and proactively working with employers, universities, and system partners to improve access to vacancies, broaden opportunities across community, primary care, social care and independent sector settings, and provide practical support that helps newly registered nurses successfully transition into professional practice.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many passenger services operated by each train operating company were reported as having one or more defective toilets in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information on individual rolling stock defects and the status of onboard facilities is held by train operators and rolling stock maintainers as part of their operational maintenance and asset management arrangements. Where toilets are fitted on board trains, the Department expects train operators to work with those maintaining them, to minimise any lack of availability and deliver facilities that passengers expect.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the transfer of passenger services into public ownership on passenger revenue, fare yield and net subsidy.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department assesses the impacts of a variety of factors when forecasting passenger revenue and the cost of operating the railway, including the direct cost savings from public ownership through removing fees paid to private-sector operators, and the benefits, projects and programmes that the creation of Great British Railways (GBR) enables. Fare yield is one of the measures of passenger revenue that GBR will monitor; changes in yield are driven by various factors including average journey length, annual fares policy, and railcard use.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 July 2026 to Question 14823 on Railways: Standards, what the average (a) 'Time to 3' performance and (b) cancellations rate for passenger rail services in Great Britain was in April to June of (i) 2025 and (ii) 2026.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In April to June 2025, the average 'Time to 3' punctuality was 86.3 percent and the cancellations score was 3.2 percent in Great Britain. Rail performance statistics have not yet been released for the equivalent period in 2026.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of recent infrastructure issues at Heathrow Airport on regulatory arrangements for future airport expansion.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government recognises the importance of resilient airport infrastructure for passengers and the wider economy. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), as the independent economic regulator of Heathrow Airport, is responsible for setting the economic regulatory framework for the airport.
The government continues to engage with the CAA and Heathrow on matters relating to the airport's resilience and future investment, while respecting the CAA's independent statutory duties. Decisions on any future airport expansion will be considered through the appropriate planning and regulatory processes.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, at which railway stations live facial recognition technology has been deployed in each of the last five years; on what dates it was deployed at each station; for what purpose; and how many individuals were (a) matched to watchlists, (b) stopped by police and (c) arrested following its use.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The British Transport Police (BTP) commenced a six-month pilot of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) at certain railway stations in February 2026. The purpose of every deployment is to identify and apprehend individuals wanted for serious crimes.
BTP have reported that to date (a) no offenders have been matched to watchlists, (b) one individual has been stopped by police but this was a false alert which was resolved quickly and (c) no individuals have been arrested specifically following use of facial recognition technology.
BTP have reported 13 arrests linked to the deployment of LFR so far during the pilot, and the locations see a reduced level of crime whilst LFR is in use.
The following railway stations have had LFR deployed:
Deployment Location | Date (2026) |
London Bridge | 11-Feb |
Waterloo Rail | 13-Feb |
Euston Rail | 17-Feb |
Kings Cross | 24-Feb |
Kings Cross | 04-Mar |
Euston | 13-Mar |
St Pancras | 19-Mar |
Liverpool Street | 26-Mar |
Kings Cross | 02-Apr |
Victoria | 09-Apr |
Victoria | 20-May |
Waterloo | 22-May |
Liverpool Street | 28-May |
Euston | 11-Jun |
Victoria | 27-Jun |
Victoria | 2-Jul |
King’s Cross | 11-Jul |
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which representatives of the outbound travel and package holiday sector were consulted during the development of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate and its accompanying cost-benefit analysis.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The development of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Mandate was subject to extensive consultation. Open consultations, which any individual or organisation could respond to, were conducted in both 2021 and 2023. The Department received responses from stakeholders from a broad range of sectors.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the resources of British Transport Police to maintain a permanent policing presence at major rail interchange stations.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The British Transport Police (BTP) is operationally independent from Government. It is therefore for the BTP Chief Constable to determine the optimal number of officers required at major rail interchange stations, using the budget allocated by the British Transport Police Authority (BTPA). The BTPA recently agreed a three-year budget settlement for BTP which will see BTP’s budget increase from £418.5m in 2025/26 to £481.5m in 2028/29.