Asked by: Paul Howell (Conservative - Sedgefield)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
Whether she plans to support the creation of regional innovation clusters.
Answered by George Freeman
Strengthening clusters is a top priority for building our Innovation Nation. More places in the UK hosting world-leading and globally connected innovation clusters will create more jobs, productivity and growth.Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of the monies allocated under City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements are directed toward projects exclusively or mainly concerned with active travel improvements.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) programme the Government has agreed five-year local transport funding settlements for seven eligible city regions from April 2022. CRSTS funding is supporting improvements across a range of transport modes, but based on the plans put forward by mayors, the Government expects at least £700m to be allocated to active travel infrastructure over the period of 2022-25.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding has been allocated to City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements for active travel in each of the financial years from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) programme the Government has agreed five-year local transport funding settlements for seven eligible city regions from April 2022. CRSTS funding is supporting improvements across a range of transport modes, but based on the plans put forward by Mayors the Government expect at least £700m to be allocated to active travel infrastructure over the period 2022-25.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the policy paper entitled Cycling and walking plan for England, published on 27 July 2020, whether he plans to spend the £2 billion of ringfenced funding for active travel in the period between 2020-21 to 2024-25; and with reference to the policy paper entitled The second cycling and walking investment strategy, published on 6 July 2022, whether he plans to spend the £1.298 billion of ringfenced funding for cycling and walking in the period between 2020-21 to 2024-25.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government expects to invest over £850 million in active travel between 2020-21 and 2022-23 – a record amount of funding. This is in addition to other sources of funding such as the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS). CRSTS delivery plans were published in July 2022 for seven eligible city regions and include details of active travel elements.
The Autumn Statement of 17 November confirmed the Department for Transport’s overall funding levels for 2023-24 and 2024-25. The Department is currently considering the budget for active travel as part of its examination of all future spending plans following that Statement.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authorities have the funding required to introduce adequate road safety measures to reduce speeding.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government believes that any form of dangerous or inconsiderate driving behaviour is a serious road safety issue. All available research shows a link between excessive speed and the risk of collisions.
We expect all drivers to observe the speed limit, and enforcement is a matter for the police. Policing of our roads, and how available resources are deployed, is the responsibility of individual chief officers, taking into account the specific local issues.
Responsibility for making decisions, and prioritising works, about the roads under their care rests with local traffic authorities based on their knowledge of local needs. This includes introducing measures to tackle dangerous roads and reduce speeding.
The Department for Transport provides guidance to support local councils on the implementation of various traffic management issues.
In addition, the Department for Transport provides funds directly to local authorities which may be used for road safety purposes.
This includes the £170 million the Department is providing in 22/23 to local highways authorities in England, outside London and City Region areas, through the Integrated Transport Block for small scale transport schemes, including road safety measures. The Integrated Transport Block is not ring-fenced, allowing authorities to spend their allocations according to their own priorities. It is therefore for each authority to decide how it allocates its resources and which transport improvement projects to support.
It also includes the £5.7 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) provide consolidated, long-term capital funding to improve the local transport networks of eight city regions across England through five-year settlements from 2022/23. This funding combines new and existing funds, including Highways Maintenance, Integrated Transport Block, Potholes fund and final year Transforming Cities Fund.
The Safer Roads Fund was established to treat the 50 highest risk local A road sections in England with remedial road safety engineering interventions. As a result, £100 million has been committed by the Department for Transport across 48 schemes.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage and support local authorities to introduce safety measures on dangerous roads proactively rather than retrospectively after multiple accidents.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government believes that any form of dangerous or inconsiderate driving behaviour is a serious road safety issue. All available research shows a link between excessive speed and the risk of collisions.
We expect all drivers to observe the speed limit, and enforcement is a matter for the police. Policing of our roads, and how available resources are deployed, is the responsibility of individual chief officers, taking into account the specific local issues.
Responsibility for making decisions, and prioritising works, about the roads under their care rests with local traffic authorities based on their knowledge of local needs. This includes introducing measures to tackle dangerous roads and reduce speeding.
The Department for Transport provides guidance to support local councils on the implementation of various traffic management issues.
In addition, the Department for Transport provides funds directly to local authorities which may be used for road safety purposes.
This includes the £170 million the Department is providing in 22/23 to local highways authorities in England, outside London and City Region areas, through the Integrated Transport Block for small scale transport schemes, including road safety measures. The Integrated Transport Block is not ring-fenced, allowing authorities to spend their allocations according to their own priorities. It is therefore for each authority to decide how it allocates its resources and which transport improvement projects to support.
It also includes the £5.7 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) provide consolidated, long-term capital funding to improve the local transport networks of eight city regions across England through five-year settlements from 2022/23. This funding combines new and existing funds, including Highways Maintenance, Integrated Transport Block, Potholes fund and final year Transforming Cities Fund.
The Safer Roads Fund was established to treat the 50 highest risk local A road sections in England with remedial road safety engineering interventions. As a result, £100 million has been committed by the Department for Transport across 48 schemes.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support is available for local authorities seeking to reduce speeding to improve road safety.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government believes that any form of dangerous or inconsiderate driving behaviour is a serious road safety issue. All available research shows a link between excessive speed and the risk of collisions.
We expect all drivers to observe the speed limit, and enforcement is a matter for the police. Policing of our roads, and how available resources are deployed, is the responsibility of individual chief officers, taking into account the specific local issues.
Responsibility for making decisions, and prioritising works, about the roads under their care rests with local traffic authorities based on their knowledge of local needs. This includes introducing measures to tackle dangerous roads and reduce speeding.
The Department for Transport provides guidance to support local councils on the implementation of various traffic management issues.
In addition, the Department for Transport provides funds directly to local authorities which may be used for road safety purposes.
This includes the £170 million the Department is providing in 22/23 to local highways authorities in England, outside London and City Region areas, through the Integrated Transport Block for small scale transport schemes, including road safety measures. The Integrated Transport Block is not ring-fenced, allowing authorities to spend their allocations according to their own priorities. It is therefore for each authority to decide how it allocates its resources and which transport improvement projects to support.
It also includes the £5.7 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) provide consolidated, long-term capital funding to improve the local transport networks of eight city regions across England through five-year settlements from 2022/23. This funding combines new and existing funds, including Highways Maintenance, Integrated Transport Block, Potholes fund and final year Transforming Cities Fund.
The Safer Roads Fund was established to treat the 50 highest risk local A road sections in England with remedial road safety engineering interventions. As a result, £100 million has been committed by the Department for Transport across 48 schemes.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the rate of economic recovery from the covid-19 outbreak across each of the regions of the UK.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Encouraging regional growth is a key part of our ambition to level up opportunities right across the UK, which is why at Spending Review 2021 we announced a comprehensive spending package to boost investment in places in need and improve people’s everyday lives. This included launching the new £1.4bn Global Britain Investment Fund to ensure that economic opportunities are spread more evenly across the UK and ensuring SMEs across the UK can access the finance they need including through British Business Bank programme.
Furthermore, we announced the first 105 places to receive support for regeneration from the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, alongside unprecedented investment of £5.7bn in five-year consolidated transport settlements for eight city regions.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June to Question 14617, with reference to the around £780 million funding allocated for bus infrastructure from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, how much and what proportion of that funding has been (a) allocated to (i) local authorities and (ii) city region partners and (b) spent by those authorities and partnerships on expenditure other than that for bus infrastructure.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government has committed to investing £5.7bn through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) in the transport networks of eight city regions in England over the next five years until 2027. Settlements were confirmed to 7 eligible Mayoral Combined Authorities in April 2022 based on proposals put forward by Mayors. The funding is distributed to the Mayoral Combined Authorities, who will report regularly to the Department for Transport on how the funding is spent. Negotiation of a settlement for the North East region is pending appropriate governance being in place.
CRSTS will support capital investments in public and sustainable transport across a range of modes including rail, bus, tram, and walking and cycling. Based on the programmes set out by city regions, this is expected to include an investment of approximately £780m in bus interventions over this Parliament.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking with local transport authorities to ensure the provision of a sheltered area at each bus stop in the UK.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Local authorities in England are responsible for the bus stops and shelters in their area.
The Government’s National Bus Strategy for England asked Local Transport Authorities to consider the impact of roadside infrastructure on passenger safety, security and accessibility in their Bus Service Improvement Plans.
These plans were subject to a detailed assessment and thirty-one counties, city regions and unitary authorities have subsequently been selected to receive a share of funding to level up their local bus services, drawing on the £1.2 billion announced at last year’s Spending Review, as part of the £3 billion we have promised for buses over this Parliament.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland transport policy is the responsibility of the devolved administrations and scrutiny the responsibility of the respective parliaments and assembly.