Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that disabled people can benefit from advances in technology that improve their ability to travel.

The 2018 Inclusive Transport Strategy set out the ambition for equal access for disabled people using the transport system by 2030, with assistance if physical infrastructure remains a barrier. The Strategy explained how technology can contribute to this.

My Department continues to work towards this ambition. This has included work on:

• Mobility as a Service - technology to simplify and tailor journey planning for users, making travel more integrated, safer, and comfortable.
• Collaborating with the Connected Places Catapult to understand how we can drive accessibility in micro-mobility, looking at emerging modes of transport and asking how we can influence the market to make them as accessible as possible.
• Supporting the Rail Delivery Group to launch the rail passenger assistance app in May 2021, which allows passengers to request assistance and review journeys using a smartphone.
• Technology Research and Innovation Grants, for which the assessment criteria includes assessing their potential to improve accessibility, and includes a specific accessibility grant funding competition to facilitate products and services to improve the ability for disabled people to travel.