Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to support recruitment and retention in the transport logistics industry.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We have taken decisive action to address the acute HGV driver shortage, with 30 specific measures taken by the Government already. These include providing support and training for new HGV drivers, expanding HGV driver testing capacity and improving licencing processes. We are also investing £32.5 million in improving roadside facilities for hauliers. We will continue to encourage the road haulage industry to make employment as an HGV driver more attractive.
Furthermore, in partnership with the Freight Council and our Future of Freight programme, we are working with industry to identify how recruitment and retention across the entire freight and logistics sector can be improved for the long term.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the transition to active travel options, such as cycling and walking.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department is investing an unprecedented £2 billion in active travel over the course of this Parliament. This is the biggest ever boost for walking and cycling and it will enable delivery of the Prime Minister’s long term cycling and walking plan, Gear Change, published in July 2020.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) roads are adequately maintained and (b) potholes are fixed promptly.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department is providing over £5 billion of investment for highways maintenance to eligible local highways authorities in England, outside of London, over this Parliament.
Well-planned maintenance to prevent potholes and other defects from forming in the first place is vital, and the Department advocates a risk-based, whole life-cycle asset management approach to all aspects of the local highway network.
To assist local authorities in treating potholes and other road defects, the Department worked with the Association of Directors, for Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) to publish Potholes: a repair guide.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to support the transition to electric vehicles with sufficient supply of electricity.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
To prepare for this the Government is working with Ofgem, the independent regulator, and the energy industry to plan for electric vehicle uptake and ensure the energy system can meet future demand in an efficient and sustainable way. The capacity market is our principal tool for ensuring security of supply. It has successfully brought forward a diverse range of new capacity, such as renewables, storage and gas plants, to replace older capacity as it retires off the system. We are confident it will enable us to meet energy demand, including that arising from greater uptake of EVs, in the future. The UK electricity market is already set up to bring forward investment in generation to meet demand. For example, the Contracts for Difference scheme supports significant investment in low carbon generation.
EVs also offer new opportunities for consumers to be part of a smarter and more flexible energy system. Smart charging can help reduce constraints on the network by shifting charging to off-peak periods. In 2019 the Government consulted on mandating that all private charge points sold or installed in the UK must have smart functionality and meet device level requirements. We intend to lay the relevant legislation later this year.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department has spent on the development of local cycle lane networks in the last five years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
At the time of the February 2020 report to Parliament on the delivery of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS), published at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/936926/cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy-report-to-parliament-document.pdf, a total of around £2.4 billion of investment in cycling and walking was projected over the five years from 2016/17 to 2020/21. Over half of this funding has gone into providing better infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians. A further £250 million of active travel funding was provided in 2020/21 at the start of the pandemic. The details of how the funding was allocated over the years 2019/20 and 2020/21 will be set out in the next CWIS report to Parliament in due course.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency respond to enquiries in a timely manner.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Throughout the pandemic the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s contact centre has actively managed its operation and flexed the services for customers in line with the available resources. This has included procuring the use of an additional building to increase the number of staff able to take calls within the social distancing guidelines. To help respond to more enquiries, remote working has been increased with staff handling email, webchat, social media and more recently, telephone customer contacts.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps have been taken to tackle pavement parking.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Department carried out a public consultation on this which closed on 22 November 2020. We have been carefully considering the 15,000 responses which have been received and will publish the consultation response in the autumn.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to tackle neighbourhood (a) speeding and (b) traffic issues.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government believes that any form of dangerous or inconsiderate driving behaviour is a serious road safety issue. All available research shows a link between excessive speed and the risk of collisions.
We expect all drivers to observe the speed limit, and enforcement is a matter for the police. Policing of our roads, and how available resources are deployed, is the responsibility of individual chief officers, taking into account the specific local issues.
Last July, the Department for Transport launched a Call for Evidence as part of a wider Roads Policing Review: a thorough examination of roads policing in England and Wales and its relevance to road safety. Responses to the Call for Evidence have been analysed and the Government response is currently being prepared for publication this summer. The response will address the key points raised by respondents, including feedback on speed enforcement.
Tackling neighbourhood traffic issues is the responsibility of local councils, and the Department for Transport publishes guidance to help them. Local Transport Notes summarise the latest and most important ideas about traffic management issues and can be viewed at www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-transport-notes.
Councils, as traffic authorities, have a statutory duty under the Traffic Management Act 2004 to manage their networks with the aim of ‘securing the expeditious movement of traffic’. They are free to make their own decisions about the streets under their care and are responsible for ensuring that their actions are within the law. Councils are accountable to their electorate for their decisions and their performance and councillors are responsible for ensuring that local decisions about street infrastructure take account of the needs and opinions of local people.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what long term investment he is making in community transport infrastructure to support the mobility of elderly and disabled people across the West Midlands.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government understands that community transport operators provide vital services particularly for older and disabled people, linking them with their communities, helping take them to shops, work, school, and medical appointments.
Bus Service Operator Grant (BSOG) is paid annually to operators of community transport services (as well as eligible bus services), to recover fuel costs. Community Transport operators receive approximately £2.3 million BSOG funding per year to support these vital services.
Since January 2014, around £43 million of BSOG is also paid annually to local authorities to support socially necessary bus services that are not commercially viable. In 2020 – 2021, Transport for West Midlands received £ 1,792,259 and Coventry City Council received £58,686 of BSOG funding.
We also continue to make investment in step-free access to railway stations through our Access for All programme across the country, with £350 million provided for this between 2019 and 2024. In the West Midlands, this includes providing an accessible route at Smethwick Rolfe Street station and tactile safety strips on platforms at Wolverhampton.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has made available from the public purse to support cycle (a) hire and (b) repair programmes in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
On 7 February 2020, the Department published a detailed breakdown of annual investment in cycling and walking from 2016/17 to 2018/19, which includes information on how much funding has been provided to local and combined authorities in the West Midlands over that period. Copies of the report and other associated information are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/investment-schedule-in-cycling-and-walking-interventions.
Under the Active Travel Fund, the Department made available around £17 million to Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM) in 2020/21 for schemes to boost cycling and walking. It is up to TfWM to determine in discussion with its seven constituent authorities where this funding is spent. In the current financial year the Department will be providing both revenue funding and capital funding to local authorities for active travel schemes. TfWM is due to receive £1.9 million of revenue funding to support local capacity building and behaviour change initiatives such as cycle hire and repair schemes.
The Department will make a further announcement in due course about TfWM’s capital funding allocation for 2021/22.
In 2020/21 the Department also made available over £20 million nationally for the Fix Your Bike voucher scheme and for pop-up “Dr Bike” maintenance stations.