Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions the Department is having with relevant stakeholders on improving local bus services in Northumberland.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to helping local leaders improve local bus services and grow usage across England, including the North East, Northumberland and Hexham constituency. The Department for Transport regularly engages with local authority representatives from the North East Combined Authority, including as part of our continued support to local transport authorities pursuing bus franchising.
We are taking action to give local leaders the powers they need to deliver better bus services for passengers, including through the Bus Services Act 2025, and investing over £1 billion in 2025/26 to support and improve bus services in England outside London, of which £23.8 million has been allocated to the North East Combined Authority. This funding can be used to expand services and improve reliability, which are currently massive obstacles for too many people.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what conversations the Department is having with relevant stakeholders to improve local bus services in the North East.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to helping local leaders improve local bus services and grow usage across England, including the North East, Northumberland and Hexham constituency. The Department for Transport regularly engages with local authority representatives from the North East Combined Authority, including as part of our continued support to local transport authorities pursuing bus franchising.
We are taking action to give local leaders the powers they need to deliver better bus services for passengers, including through the Bus Services Act 2025, and investing over £1 billion in 2025/26 to support and improve bus services in England outside London, of which £23.8 million has been allocated to the North East Combined Authority. This funding can be used to expand services and improve reliability, which are currently massive obstacles for too many people.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the estimated cost to the public purse is of UK transport-sector decarbonisation policies relating to (a) the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate for cars and vans, (b) HGV decarbonisation programmes, (c) bus and coach decarbonisation schemes and (d) sustainable aviation fuel and wider aviation decarbonisation initiatives by mode.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The transition to zero emission vehicles, including cars, vans and HGVs, received £1.8bn in the spending review settlement, which is additional to the £320m allocated at Autumn Budget 2024.
£40m was allocated for zero emission bus projects through the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) Scheme at Autumn Budget 2024.
£63m in 2025/2026 will support Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production in the UK through the Advanced Fuels Fund. Further support is committed through the next SR period to 2029/30 – the parameters of this funding will be published in due course.
The SAF Revenue Certainty Mechanism will be industry funded.
The Government has announced up to £2.3bn of funding over ten years to extend the Aerospace Technology Institute Programme to 2035. The programme supports industry led projects including the development of new low and zero carbon aircraft.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what meetings her Department has held with motorcycling organisations on the forthcoming Integrated National Transport Strategy; and if she will recognise motorcycling as a means of transport for access to work and education.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department has conducted extensive engagement with stakeholders and members of the public to inform the strategy and has heard directly from motorcyclists and motorcycle representative groups including Motorcycle Action Group through our Call for Ideas and Regional Roadshow.
The insights gathered through our engagement activities have been analysed and are directly informing the strategy as it continues to evolve.
Officials also met bilaterally with the Motorcycle Action Group on 29 August 2025 to respond to a range of matters of concern to motorcyclists which included an update on the development of the strategy. An update was also provided at the most recent meeting of the officials led Motorcycle Strategic Focus Group on 15 September, chaired by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.
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 28 October 2025 to Question 83389 on Transport: Exhaust Emissions, if she will provide a breakdown of the remaining 33.7MtCO₂e by mode, including (a) HGVs, (b) buses and coaches, (c) rail, (d) domestic and international aviation attributable to the UK, (e) domestic shipping, and (f) other transport sources.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes estimates of UK greenhouse gas emissions annually. The most recent accredited official statistics cover the period 1990 to 2023 and are available online as part of the UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions statistics.
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 84703 on Transport: Research, how many bids by UK academics to the NSF–UKRI Lead Agency Opportunity her Department has supported with letters of endorsement since that scheme’s launch.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Since the launch of the National Science Foundation – UKRI Lead Agency Opportunity, the Department for Transport has provided one letter of support for a bid by UK academics. The scheme is administered by UK Research and Innovation, and the Department is not routinely involved in the application process.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to establish an independent mechanism for public reporting of rail safety incidents.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The main independent mechanism for publicly reporting safety incidents on the railways is the Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS). The Office of Rail and Road also operate an anonymous whistleblowing service. Therefore, no plans exist to create an additional independent mechanism for public reporting of rail safety incidents.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which bodies Great British Railways will be statutorily required to consult when proposing service or infrastructure changes.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Government is bringing track and train together in Great British Railways (GBR), which will be a directing mind able to take long-term strategic decisions to make the best use of the network and which will deliver benefits for passengers, freight users and taxpayers. GBR will set out their plans for passenger services and infrastructure in an Integrated Business Plan, which the Secretary of State will approve. When GBR proposes to update its business plan, under the Railways Bill it will be required to consult the Office of Rail and Road and Passenger Watchdog, as well as seek approval from the Secretary of State. This will ensure that there is expert, third party scrutiny on proposed material updates before delivery changes
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of active-travel funding allocations to local authorities.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Active travel funding allocations are based on capability level as assessed through Active Travel England’s annual capability ratings process. The ratings are used to allocate funding and to provide the right support to authorities to help them develop capability to deliver high quality schemes. This process has resulted in an increase in the number of active travel schemes completed on schedule from 58% in 2023/4 to 69% in 2024/5.
Since being established in 2022, Active Travel England (ATE) has provided over £560 million of funding to authorities. ATE have overseen the creation of over 400 miles of new walking and cycling routes (and hundreds of safer crossing and junctions) that the above funding has provided.
There has also been a 9% improvement in the (published) assessment by Active Travel England on local councils’ ability to deliver schemes overall (from 2022/23 to 2023/24).
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if her Department holds information on the number of UK road traffic accidents caused by immigrants driving without a valid full or provisional UK driving licence.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This information is not held by the Department for Transport.