Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department made of the potential risk to road safety prior to the decision in September 2021 to cease the requirement to take the B+E test to tow a trailer or caravan with a car.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) takes its commitment to road safety extremely seriously and continues to work with the industry and stakeholders to drive forward the importance of safe driving and safe towing.
The Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) driver shortage has been well documented and is an issue that is affecting people and businesses throughout the world. The Government has acted decisively to help address the HGV driver shortage and announced a range of measures to help the industry recover from the pandemic. A public consultation exercise was launched to seek views on changes to the HGV driving test. The proposal to remove the requirement for car drivers to take a B+E test if they want to tow a trailer was subject to that public consultation. The consultation received over 9,500 responses and most respondents supported the proposals. The DVSA has analysed the responses and published a summary of the public feedback on these proposals on GOV.UK
The car and trailer licence changes announced on 10 September 2021 have now been approved by Parliament and came into force on 16 December 2021.
All car drivers wishing to tow a trailer or caravan for leisure or business are still encouraged to undertake voluntary training through an accreditation scheme, which is being developed with the trailer industry and training providers.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he has plans to alter the vaccine recognition approval status for Ethiopia.
Answered by Robert Courts
The Government is taking a phased approach to the rollout of our inbound vaccination programme and will continue to work with international partners to expand the policy to more countries and territories where it is safe to do so. Vaccine certification between countries and territories varies considerably and the government has published minimum criteria on gov.uk that both digital and paper certificates must meet.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has allocated to Stonewall in each of the last five years; and for what projects.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department for Transport, including its Executive Agencies (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Vehicle Certification Agency, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency), has allocated the following funding to Stonewall in the last five years:
The Department has no plans currently to renew its Stonewall membership.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2021 to Question 45033 on Department for Transport: Listed Buildings, if he will publish a list of the properties classified as heritage assets by his Department as opposed to those owned through local authorities giving the (a) value and (b) annual income derived for each of those properties.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
As part of the Government’s Transparency Agency information about Department for Transport properties is published on the data.gov.uk website. Please follow the below link, and select the ‘Property (excel download)’ file and download.
https://data.gov.uk/dataset/epimstransparency
Information on the properties classified as heritage assets, value of those properties and income derived from those properties can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the (a) properties classified as heritage assets by his Department, (b) most recent estimate of the value of those properties and (c) annual income derived from those properties.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
As part of the Government’s Transparency Agency information about Department for Transport properties is published on the data.gov.uk website:
https://data.gov.uk/dataset/epimstransparency
Information on the properties classified as heritage assets, value of those properties and income derived from those properties can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency is taking to clear the backlog for learner drivers wanting to take their driving test following the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has put in place a number of measures to increase practical driving tests. These include offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays). The DVSA has also started a recruitment campaign to increase the number of examiners. The aim is to increase testing capacity and reduce the backlog as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining a COVID-secure service for customers and examiners.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the UK-France reciprocal agreement on driving licences will be agreed.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government is making every effort to reach a swift understanding with France regarding long-term licence exchange arrangements for UK nationals resident in France, and vice-versa. UK nationals who became resident in France before 1 January 2021 can continue to use their valid UK licences until 31 December 2021. The French authorities have confirmed that a valid UK licence will continue to be exchanged in this period, until a reciprocal agreement is reached between the United Kingdom and France.