Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to introduce regulation for truck maintenance service providers.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Roadworthiness standards for vehicles are set out in legislation. We have no plans to introduce regulations specifically for truck maintenance service providers.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the amount that local authorities have spent on repairing potholes (a) nationally and (b) in York in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Under the 1980 Highway Act, it is the responsibility of the local highway authority, such as the City of York Council, to maintain and manage the highway network they are responsible for. The Government provides highway maintenance and other funding to local authorities but does not collect data on how much each one spends on repairing potholes: this is a matter for each local highway authority.
In 2023/24, the Government provided the City of York Council with £3.69 million of capital funding for local highway maintenance. This represents an increase of around 30% compared to the previous year, made possible in part by reallocating funding that would otherwise have been spent on the HS2 programme.
The Department annually collects and publishes statistics on gov.uk that detail the condition and maintenance of the highways in England. This includes total expenditure on the local highway network in England, broken down by structural maintenance, routine treatments, and highways planning and strategy on different categories of road:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/road-condition-statistics-data-tables-rdc
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of potholes on the number of people cycling.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of people cycling depends on a range of factors including the availability and maintenance of safe, high-quality routes for cycling. Active Travel England and the Department are undertaking joint research to better understand journey quality which would consider the impact of potholes. In the meantime, the Department has announced an unprecedented £8.3 billion funding uplift for roads resurfacing over the next decade, which will enable local highway authorities to transform the state of their local roads.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of accidents there have been involving (a) cars and (b) cyclists due to potholes in the last 12 months.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department publishes road casualty statistics based on personal injury road collisions reported to the police via the STATS19 reporting system.
STATS19 does not identify the cause of collisions, but reporting police officers can identify up to 6 factors which in their opinion may have contributed to the collision.
In 2022 (the most recent year for which figures are available) there were 215 cars and 42 pedal cycles involved in injury collisions where the contributory factor ‘poor or defective road surface’ was assigned.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on repairing potholes (a) nationally and (b) in York in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Under the 1980 Highway Act, it is the responsibility of the local highway authority, such as the City of York Council, to maintain and manage the highway network it is responsible for.
The Government allocates funding to local highways authorities so they can most effectively spend this funding on maintaining and improving their respective network, based upon their local knowledge, circumstances and priorities. It is up to the respective highway authority how best to spend this funding to fulfil their statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980. In 2023/24, the Department for Transport provided £1.3 billion of Highway Maintenance Block capital funding to local highway authorities in England outside London and the Mayoral Combined Authority areas, of which the City of York Council received £3.699 million. This was 30% higher than the equivalent figure for 2022/23.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to develop a net zero road map for the haulage industry.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to supporting the haulage industry to reach net zero. You may recall, in June 2022, this government published the first-ever cross modal and cross-government plan for the UK freight transport.
The Future of Freight Plan committed to a series of actions to support the decarbonisation of the freight sector and work is currently underway to deliver a strategy for the rollout of zero emission HGV infrastructure. This will support the haulage sector to achieve net zero.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of error in the last three financial years.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department was recently requested to set out the steps it has taken to reduce the costs of fraud in the last three financial years: this response is provided in the Annex below. The Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) defines the difference between fraud and error in relation to the dishonest intent of the individual or organisation involved in the incorrect payment. “Fraud” represents losses to the Department caused with intent by a counterparty. “Error” represents losses to the Department where intent cannot be proven. As the difference between fraud and error relates to the established intent of the counterparty rather than the activity itself, the Department has a single controls and assurance regime over fraud and error, which is set out in the Annex below.
In addition, the Department operates business-as-usual transactional and analytical controls to mitigate and detect risk of financial error caused by administrative errors.
Annex A – Parliamentary Question 22574 To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of fraud in his Department in the last three financial years.
Response provided on 23 April 2024
Since the establishment of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) in 2022, the Department has been working closely with PSFA to implement the Counter Fraud Functional Standard framework, a common set of standards required by government departments to counter fraud, bribery, and corruption. To support compliance with the Functional Standard, the Department internally published its Counter Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Strategy for 2022-2025 to improve culture and awareness and build on the counter fraud activity delivered since the launch of DfT’s first strategy in 2019.
The following key activities have taken place to drive improvements in reducing fraud by improving detection activity, enhancing fraud prevention and building capability.
To support detection activity the department utilises Spotlight, a due diligence tool provided to departments by the Cabinet Office to help identify areas of risk and potential fraud and error. The department has also commenced a data analytics project utilising artificial intelligence to identify instances of fraud and error within high-risk spending areas. This initiative is providing comprehensive insights into fraudulent activities and errors that can be used to further strengthen controls and seek recovery of funds where fraud or error is identified. The Department’s contract management teams have furthermore increased their focus on fraud risks and detection, resulting in substantial sums recovered and returned to the Exchequer. Detected, prevented and recovered fraud is formally disclosed to the Cabinet Office who report publicly on these results across government in their annual Fraud Landscape Report.
On fraud prevention, a Fraud Risk Assessment (FRA) policy was introduced to enable accountable officers across DfT to take responsibility in ensuring that fraud, bribery, and corruption risks are adequately understood and effectively managed. The FRA process has been embedded into business-as-usual activity and has supported the department in identifying fraud risks, driving control improvements, and fostering continuous improvement in fraud risk management practices.
To build capability DfT has increased its engagement with the PSFA to enhance oversight, prioritisation of risks, delivery against counter fraud functional standards and sharing of best practice. We have increased our collaboration across the departmental group and across government networks to share lessons learnt, horizon scan for new and emerging trends and deliver collaborative best practice workshops, training sessions and awareness campaigns on areas of development e.g. risk assessment.
In 2023 and early 2024, DfT was one of the first departments assessed under the latest framework by PSFA for compliance against the Counter Fraud Functional Standard. The Department is now working with PSFA to take forwards the recommendations from this review to drive further improvements in the Department’s counter-fraud function.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to announce the outcome of Northwich Station’s Access for All funding bid.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
As part of our recent Network North announcement, the Government confirmed £350m will be made available to improve the accessibility of our train stations. We are assessing over 300 nominations for Access for All, including a nomination for Northwich railway station. If successful, the funding will create an obstacle free, accessible route from the station entrance to platforms. Successful nominations will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of potholes on drivers in Warwickshire.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State is keen to support motorists in Warwickshire, and elsewhere, by mitigating the impact of potholes. Under the 1980 Highways Act, local highway authorities, such as Warwickshire County Council, are responsible for maintaining and managing the local highway network within their area.
For the 2024/25 financial year, the Government is providing Warwickshire County Council with over £18.2 million for highway maintenance. This includes £2.056 million of reallocated HS2 funding and is a 12.7% increase over the funding the Council was expecting in 2024/25 before the Prime Minister’s Network North announcement.
It is up to the respective highway authority how best to spend this funding to fulfil their statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980. Funding is not ring fenced and Warwickshire can spend the money on all aspects of highway maintenance such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns – and not just the fixing of potholes.
Asked by: Sarah Edwards (Labour - Tamworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans the Government has for land that was formerly earmarked for HS2.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Any property that is no longer required will be disposed of and a programme is being developed to do this. We will ensure it is compliant with requirements on the disposal of surplus government property, delivers value for money for taxpayers and does not disrupt local property markets.