Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of the shortfall of bus and coach drivers in Britain on that industry.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
My Department is working closely with the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) and the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) to gather information to gain an understanding of the current staffing levels and recruitment pipeline in the bus sector.
The Government remains committed to maintaining high service levels for bus users to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and has announced £226.5 million in Bus Recovery Funding to support this.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on promoting careers in the bus and coach industry via (a) job centres and (b) materials provided to people in receipt of jobseekers allowance.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
To date, there have not been any meetings with the SoS for Work and Pensions on this topic.
Individual bus operators are required to ensure they have sufficient staff in order to run their scheduled services. To this end, we expect the bus sector to pursue all opportunities to encourage job seekers into the industry, including working with local job centres
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the home-to-school services exemption to the Public Services Vehicle Accessibility Regulations beyond 31 March 2022.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Bus and coach operators have already had many years to comply with the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000, and I am disappointed that some operators in the rail replacement and home-to-school sectors are still unable to provide relevant services using compliant vehicles.
When writing to the industry in July to offer further temporary exemptions to 31 March 2022 to enable essential services to operate, the buses Minister Baroness Vere was clear that to be eligible for future (qualified) exemptions beyond 31 March 2022, operators would need to demonstrate steps they have taken to comply with the Regulations.
We are finalising the scope and eligibility criteria for such exemptions and will provide further information in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reforming driving licences for (a) Heavy Goods Vehicles and (b) Passenger Carrying Vehicles to be weight-based for tackling the driver shortages in the HGV industry.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We have held initial discussions with some elements of the vocational training sector, and with organisations with delegated examiners, about delegating to them the authority to sign-off the manoeuvres element of the practical test needed to acquire a HGV driving licence. This potential reform in the process would allow DVSA examiners to focus on the on-road element of and increase the number of tests conducted, though this would need a regulatory amendment.
When considering whether drivers in the coach and bus industry would provide a suitable pool of qualified drivers to relieve the HGV driver shortage, we must take into account labour pressures in the bus sector. We continue to keep all options under review.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment was made of the circumstances of UK-based private hire drivers who give tours to the EU as part of negotiations on the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
During UK-EU negotiations, market access provisions for passenger transport operators were discussed at length. Prior to these negotiations, the Government also discussed provisions with relevant passenger transport stakeholders.
Following the conclusion of the Trade Cooperation Agreement between the UK and EU, the GOV.UK page https://www.gov.uk/guidance/run-international-bus-or-coach-services-and-tours has been updated to reflect the current rules for passenger transport services that operate to Europe and other countries. We have also been working with the industry to provide bespoke guidance.
The UK also acceded to the Interbus Agreement in its own right on 1 January 2021. This provides reciprocal rights for UK and EU operators to provide ‘occasional services’ (holiday tours and private trips) to and from respective territories.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2020 to Question 59592 on Bus Services: Coronavirus, what progress the Government has made on a sector-based financial support package for the coach sector; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We have announced several financial support measures available to UK businesses, including the coach industry. This includes measures announced on 24 September as part of the Winter Economy Plan, further support on 22 October for businesses in local lockdown areas, changes to the Job Support Scheme (JSS), and increased business grants. With the introduction of new national restrictions on 5 November, the COVID-19 Job Retention Scheme has also been extended until March 2021.
The full return to education supports a key revenue source for the industry and this has been augmented by the additional vehicles needed compared to previous years. The Department of Education has announced over £70 million to local transport authorities to provide additional dedicated school and college capacity in our transport system, helping children and young people to get to and from their schools and colleges whilst social distancing reduces the capacity of existing public transport
We continue to work closely with representatives from the coach sector including the Confederation of Passenger Transport, and with other government departments, to understand the ongoing risks and issues the sector faces and how these could be addressed.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department is having with (a) coach operators and (b) the Department for Education on ensuring that there is sufficient capacity within the commercial transport sector to transport children to and from school at the start of the next academic year as a result of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on those providers; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Ministers and officials from my Department have regular meetings with representatives from the coach industry and other government departments on this topic. We continue to work closely with the coach sector to understand what the ongoing risks and issues are, and how these could be addressed.
The Secretary of State for Transport, The Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Baroness Vere of Norbiton have met with ministers and officials from the Department of Education to discuss home to school transport. On 8 August, the Department for Transport announced a further funding package for bus operators with rolling funding at up to £27.3 million per week until a time when the funding is no longer needed. Also on 8 August the Department for Education announced a new £40 million funding package for local authorities to support home to school transport, including the provision of additional coach services.
In addition, the Department for Transport has provided support and grants totalling £7.25 million to local authorities to develop a Travel Demand Management Plan to understand school and work travel patterns and ensure there is safe and sufficient transport for schools.
Asked by: Karen Bradley (Conservative - Staffordshire Moorlands)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2020 to Question 52118 on Bus Services: Coronavirus, whether he plans to make additional support available to private coach companies over summer 2020 to help them during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
On 8 August the Government announced a new £40 million funding package for school transport. Local authorities have discretion as to which mode offers the best value for money when procuring vehicles from September, however it is expected some will procure coach support where group sizes are large enough and this is logistically possible.
The Department for Transport has been in regular contact with representatives of the coach industry and we continue to work closely with the coach sector to understand what the ongoing risks and issues are, and how these could be addressed.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide long-term financial support to bus, coach and tram services outside of London whilst there is reduced capacity and demand for public transport due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and how any such funding will be dispersed.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department continues to work closely with transport authorities and operators to understand the risks and ongoing issues in the bus and coach industry and how these can be addressed, so that public transport services can adapt to any ‘new normal’ that emerges from the COVID-19 outbreak and work towards a sustainable long-term recovery.
The Department is engaging with HMT on the future of emergency funding for the bus and light rail sectors as a matter of the highest priority. My department will be in contact with operators as soon as we are in a position to update them.
We are continuing to engage with the coach sector to understand what the ongoing risks and issues are, and how these could be addressed.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to support the bus and coach industry after the current COVID-19 financial support expires in August; and what discussions they have had with the bus and coach industry to understand that industry's strategic requirements.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department continues to work closely with transport authorities and operators to understand the risks and ongoing issues in the bus and coach industry and how these can be addressed, so that public transport services can adapt to any ‘new normal’ that emerges from the COVID-19 outbreak and work towards a sustainable long-term recovery.