Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Budget 2025, published on 28 November 2025, HC 1492, from which financial year she plans to meet her target to fix an additional one million potholes each year.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government takes the condition of our country’s local highway network extremely seriously. This is why the Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment into local highways maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding for local authorities to repair and renew their roads and fix potholes to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This new, four-year funding settlement is in addition to the Government's investment of £1.6 billion this year, a £500 million increase compared to last year. These funding increases enable local authorities to fill an additional one million potholes in each year of this Parliament.
In addition to increasing the available funding, the Department has confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, providing greater funding certainty to local authorities. This enables them to better plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance so that roads can be fixed properly and kept in good condition for longer so that fewer potholes form in the first place.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps are being taken to improve (a) data quality and (b) error correction processes within vehicle-related databases relied upon by enforcement authorities.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The British Standard for Retroreflective Number Plates (BS AU 145e) is published by the British Standards Institution (BSI).
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is part of the BSI committee that has reviewed this standard and the committee has recently proposed a number of amendments. The proposed amendments are intended to stop the production of number plates with raised characters, often referred to as 3D or 4D number plates and will prevent easy access to plates with ‘ghost’ characteristics. The proposals will also prevent suppliers from adding acrylic letters and numbers to the surface of the number, meaning any finished number plate must be flat. The proposed changes have been subject to a public consultation which closed on 13 December 2025.
The DVLA is working to further reduce the number of vehicles that have no registered keeper or are unlicensed. There are long-standing and robust measures, including legislative requirements, in place to ensure that keepers notify the DVLA when they buy and sell a vehicle. It is an offence to use a vehicle that does not have a registered keeper. The DVLA also has processes in place to correct records when it is made aware of inaccuracies.
Based on the latest available data, more than 93 per cent of vehicle keepers are contactable and traceable based on the information held on the DVLA’s records. Of the remainder, around 6% are in the motor trade, where a vehicle may legitimately have no registered keeper.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department plans to review the British Standard for number plates to ensure it remains fit for purpose in supporting (a) enforcement and (b) public safety.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The British Standard for Retroreflective Number Plates (BS AU 145e) is published by the British Standards Institution (BSI).
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is part of the BSI committee that has reviewed this standard and the committee has recently proposed a number of amendments. The proposed amendments are intended to stop the production of number plates with raised characters, often referred to as 3D or 4D number plates and will prevent easy access to plates with ‘ghost’ characteristics. The proposals will also prevent suppliers from adding acrylic letters and numbers to the surface of the number, meaning any finished number plate must be flat. The proposed changes have been subject to a public consultation which closed on 13 December 2025.
The DVLA is working to further reduce the number of vehicles that have no registered keeper or are unlicensed. There are long-standing and robust measures, including legislative requirements, in place to ensure that keepers notify the DVLA when they buy and sell a vehicle. It is an offence to use a vehicle that does not have a registered keeper. The DVLA also has processes in place to correct records when it is made aware of inaccuracies.
Based on the latest available data, more than 93 per cent of vehicle keepers are contactable and traceable based on the information held on the DVLA’s records. Of the remainder, around 6% are in the motor trade, where a vehicle may legitimately have no registered keeper.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the (a) name, (b) job title, (c) annual remuneration, (d) time commitment and (e) expected end date is for each direct ministerial appointment in her Department.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Current Direct Ministerial Appointments are set out in the table below:
Name | Role | Remuneration | Time Commitment | Term |
Laura Shoaf | Shadow Great British Railways Chair | £1,600 day rate | Up to two days a week | 19/3/2026 |
Lee McDonough | HS2 Shareholder Board Independent Member | Nil | 1 day every 2 months | 12 months |
Andrew Sage | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Anne-Lise Scaillierez | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Christopher Bradshaw | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Duncan Walker | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Gary Elliott | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Jayne Golding | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
JoeBen Bevirt | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Kate Kennally | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Kevin Craven | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Louisa Smith | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Marc Bailey | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Neil Pakey | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Richard Parker | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Simon Masters | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Rose Rouse | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Sophie O'Sullivan | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
Stuart Simpson | Future of Flight Industry Group Member | Nil | 1.5 hour per meeting approx 2 meetings per year | Not Specified |
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 27 October 2025 to Question 82988 on Bicycles: Infrastructure, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of floating bus stops on independent access to bus services for blind and partially sighted people.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department recognises the concerns raised about floating bus stops, particularly by vision-impaired people, and we are taking steps to address them.
Section 31 of the Bus Services Act 2025 requires the Secretary of State to publish statutory guidance for local authorities in England on the provision and design of floating bus stops, within three months of Royal Assent. This must be consulted on with the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee and other relevant organisations before publication. Local authorities will be required to have regard to this guidance.
In addition, local authorities have been asked to pause implementation of certain designs of floating bus stop. I wrote to all local traffic authorities on 20 November setting out the terms of this pause. This applies to floating bus stop schemes which are at the design stage, and which include designs which require people to board or alight directly from or into a cycle track.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of public awareness of road safety issues relating to (a) drug and (b) drink driving in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In respect of drug driving, as the THINK! campaign, launched on the 24th Novmeber is still running. The Department has not yet made an assessment of its reach and impact as this will be evaluated in full next year.
In respect of the 2025 THINK! summer drink driving campaign, at a national level 9 in 10 of those who saw or heard the campaign took action as a result. There was a significant increase in the proportion of young male drivers who said they are very likely to have a 0% alcohol alternative when driving, up from 31% pre- to 42% post-campaign.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made about the current levels of [i] drink driving and [ii] drug driving related accidents and fatalities on roads in the [i] UK, and [ii] Leicestershire.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Statistics regarding drink and drug driving in personal injury road collisions in Great Britain are based on data reported to police using the STATS19 system.
The estimated number of collisions and fatalities in drink-drive collisions for Great Britain and Leicestershire for 2023 (the latest figures available) are given in the table below.
Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 therefore 0 fatalities for Leicestershire indicates that the estimated number was less than 5:
Area | Collisions | Fatalities |
Great Britain | 4,390 | 260 |
Leicestershire | 50 | 0 |
These are based on the results of breath tests conducted by the police at the scene of personal injury road collisions and combined with data from coroners on blood alcohol levels of those killed in collisions.
While STATS19 does not attribute cause of collision, reporting officers attending the scene are able to assign up to 6 road safety factors which, in their opinion, based on the information available within a short time of the collision, they consider may have contributed to it.
In 2024, the latest year available data there were 18 personal injury collisions in Leicestershire where “affected by drugs” was assigned to a driver or rider in the collision. This is 3% of all collisions in Leicestershire where a police officer attended the collision and assigned at least 1 road safety factor, the comparison for Great Britain is 3% of collisions.
There was 1 fatality in Leicestershire in a personal injury collision where “affected by drugs” was assigned to a driver or rider in the collision, this is 4% of all fatalities in Leicestershire in collisions where a police officer attended the collision and assigned at least 1 road safety factor, the comparison for Great Britain is 8% of fatalities.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the(a) current DVLA registration process for number plate suppliers, (b) background checks on number plate supplier applicants, (c) measures in place to prevent the acquisition of materials to print non-compliant plates and (d) number of DVLA enforcement officers.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and others to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime, including the use of illegal plates.
The law requires that anyone who supplies number plates for road use in the UK must be registered with the DVLA. It is a legal requirement for suppliers to carry out checks to ensure that number plates are only sold to those who can prove they are entitled to the registration number. Number plate suppliers must also keep records of the plates they have supplied. It is an offence to sell a number plate without carrying out these required checks and can lead to a fine and removal from the Register of Number Plate Suppliers (RNPS).
Officials are considering options to ensure more robust application and audit processes which would enable tighter checks on number plate suppliers. On-road enforcement of number plate offences is a matter for the police.
Officials are also in discussions with the British Number Plate Manufacturers’ Association about the issue of non-compliant materials.
The DVLA’s enforcement officers work with the police and Trading Standards to carry out educational and compliance visits to registered suppliers. Enforcement officers attend the premises of registered number plate suppliers to check working practices and inspect number plates on the premises. Enforcement officers can inspect records held, take copies and/or seize the records.
In addition, DVLA officers carry out intelligence led enforcement activities to tackle a wide range of offences, actively working with our partners to investigate.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the accuracy of vehicle registration data captured by Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The British Standard for Retroreflective Number Plates (BS AU 145e) is published by the British Standards Institution (BSI).
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is part of the BSI committee that has reviewed this standard and the committee has recently proposed a number of amendments. The proposed amendments are intended to stop the production of number plates with raised characters, often referred to as 3D or 4D number plates and will prevent easy access to plates with ‘ghost’ characteristics. The proposals will also prevent suppliers from adding acrylic letters and numbers to the surface of the number, meaning any finished number plate must be flat. The proposed changes have been subject to a public consultation which closed on 13 December 2025.
The DVLA is working to further reduce the number of vehicles that have no registered keeper or are unlicensed. There are long-standing and robust measures, including legislative requirements, in place to ensure that keepers notify the DVLA when they buy and sell a vehicle. It is an offence to use a vehicle that does not have a registered keeper. The DVLA also has processes in place to correct records when it is made aware of inaccuracies.
Based on the latest available data, more than 93 per cent of vehicle keepers are contactable and traceable based on the information held on the DVLA’s records. Of the remainder, around 6% are in the motor trade, where a vehicle may legitimately have no registered keeper.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to prioritise the (a) voices and (b) needs of disabled people in the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The consultation on the development of the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy closed on 15 December 2025. It outlines that by 2035, this Government wants walking, wheeling and cycling to be a safe, easy and accessible option for everyone. The Department has engaged a number of disability rights organisations during the consultation including the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee and held a dedicated workshop on disability and the Strategy on 6 November 2025.