Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the level of labour shortages of (a) HGV and (b) public service vehicle drivers on the provision of public transport.

In response to the HGV driver shortage, the Government put in place 33 short, medium, and long-term interventions, such as increased driving test availability and the £34m investment from DfE to train up to 11,000 drivers through Skills Bootcamps.

These interventions have begun to take effect, with industry bodies reporting positively that the number of HGV drivers is stabilising, and there is currently no severe disruption to critical sectors due to the driver shortage which we continue to monitor.

Bus and coach driver shortages have been an issue but appear to be abating based on the latest intelligence from the sector.