Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for the total number of people, broken by nationality, on the Department's Person of Interest List concerning individuals involved with taking payment to take driving tests on a third party's behalf.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) does not capture any information on nationalities at either the theory or practical driving tests.
The DVSA has robust measures in place to stop people using false identities when taking a driving test.
At the start of the driving test, all driving examiners carry out thorough identification and documentation checks to satisfy themselves of the person’s identity, and the validity of the driving licence and theory test pass certificate.
To make it harder for fraudsters to impersonate a candidate, DVSA has worked in partnership with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to give driving examiners access to an enlarged photograph of the candidate, as shown on the driving licence, to help the examiner decide if the person presenting for a test is the correct candidate. If a candidate fails to satisfy the examiner that they have complied with the requirements, the examiner will, under legislation, refuse to take the test.
DVSA takes very seriously any allegations of fraudulent activity, including candidate impersonation. It has a dedicated Intelligence Threat Hub to enable assessment of all information available and prioritisation of investigations, and a dedicated counter fraud and intelligence team to investigate such allegations.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending contactless rail payment upgrades to stations in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government wants to improve passenger experience and strive towards enhancing and improving ticketing. We are delivering on extensions to Pay As You Go (PAYG) with contactless ticketing to an additional 50 stations on the 14 December in the Southeast.
Whilst initial delivery does not include upgrades to stations in the Surrey Heath constituency, I would like to assure you that our commitment to improving ticketing for passengers does not end with this tranche of stations. As such, we are considering a number of factors to determine which stations will be included in future phases of PAYG with contactless rollout. We will announce further details in due course.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when her Department plans to respond to correspondence of 1 September 2025 from the hon. Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire on the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement Scheme.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A reply was sent by Lord Hendy on 18 November. I would like to apologise for the delay in replying.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 31 October 2025, to Question 84335, on Electric Vehicles: Grants, which Chinese firms have received funding under the scheme in 2025-26.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department cannot provide breakdown of orders per individual manufacturer due to commercial sensitivity. A list of vehicles eligible for grant support is available on Gov.UK.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the value of outstanding Dartford Crossing fines for foreign HGV drivers.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not release this information on the grounds that it could prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs by undermining the collection of Dart Charge.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much the Office of Rail and Road has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information is provided in the table below. Most of these costs related to ORR’s role and duties in respect of the Channel Tunnel.
Financial Year | Cost (£) |
2020-21 | 55,223 |
2021-22 | 42,713 |
2022-23 | 27,717 |
2023-24 | 36,033 |
2024-25 | 26,081 |
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 78699 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, if he will list the number of public charging devices, per capita, by individual local authority.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department publishes statistics on the number of public charging devices at local authority level as part of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure statistics.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that immigrants in the UK do not drive on public roads under a non-GB issued licence for longer than 12 months.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
While the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is responsible for issuing driving licences, enforcement of the law is a matter for the police.
Asked by: Baroness Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what mechanisms are in place to ensure a smooth transition of licensing and market management functions from the Rail Delivery Group to Great British Railways.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Under the government’s plans, the retail industry management functions currently performed by the Rail Delivery Group will move to Great British Railways. This includes the oversight and management of central systems that all retailers use, and the licensing of third parties to operate as rail ticket retailers.
We are working closely with industry partners to ensure transition plans are as smooth as possible.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 16 September 2024 (HL568), under which movement classification the movement notification to National Highways about the tram movement from the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre in Dudley to the Metro Maintenance Centre in Wednesbury on 15 February 2024 was made.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The actual movement notification for the tram movements was submitted under ‘STGO AIL Cat 3’ on ref: RFS/3062 on the 25th January 2024.