Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of safe evening transport for women in (a) rural areas and (b) Langley Vale.

The Department for Transport is committed to making the transport network safer for everyone, including women and girls, whenever and wherever they are travelling. As part of the Government’s aims to reduce Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) by half over the next decade, the Department has an ambitious, evidence-based programme of work to help tackle VAWG on transport. This includes measures in the Bus Services Act 2025 such as training on how to recognise and respond to incidents of criminal and antisocial behaviour (ASB).

We know that women and girls are more likely than men to avoid travelling alone when it’s dark. The Department’s ‘Protected characteristics and public transport perceptions and safety’ research, published in 2023, also found that women were more concerned than men about the risk of violence regardless of the time of day. People living in rural areas were more likely to say they felt safe, albeit by a relatively small margin.

We are continuing to build our evidence base to better understand the prevalence of VAWG and ASB across the transport network so we can better target interventions. In the meantime, the Department will continue to work across government and with partners, including the British Transport Police (BTP), the transport industry and local authorities to ensure that everyone feels and is safe when travelling.

In relation to taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs), the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill is seeking a power to set in regulations national minimum standards for taxi and PHV licensing. The power was approved by the House of Commons at Report Stage, and the Bill is now being considered by the House of Lords. If passed, this would enable government to set robust standards for licensing right across England, to keep women and girls and, indeed, all members of the public safe, wherever they live or travel.