Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the supply of HGV drivers as at 22 March 2022; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of making loans available to people to cover the cost of HGV training.

The most recent Annual Population Survey data published by the Office for National Statistics shows that in the period January-December 2021 there were 252,811 HGV drivers employed.

The Government has considered a range of options for supporting HGV driver training. We are investing up to £34 million in skills bootcamps to train up to 11,000 more people to become HGV drivers. These are free, short, intensive courses and are available to train new drivers to gain a category C or category C&E licence, upgrade their existing licence to category C+E or to qualify to transport hazardous goods. There are also courses to help update Driver CPC qualifications so former drivers can return to the sector.

An additional 1,000 people are expected to be trained through courses accessed locally and funded by the government’s adult education budget.

We are also supporting lorry driver training through apprenticeships. This includes the Large Goods Vehicle Driver (Category C+E) apprenticeship standard with a funding band of £7,000, and the Urban Driver (Category C) apprenticeship with a funding band of £5,000. The apprenticeships are available to people of any age who are seeking to retrain and widens the accessibility of this route of entry into the industry.

In addition, the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus are supporting jobseekers to return to driving and helping jobseekers become HGV drivers through a driver training pilot scheme and sector-based work academy programmes (SWAPs).