Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to secure the future of ports and wharfs as key infrastructure in delivering the supply chain for the Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Industrial Strategy recognises the importance of ports to the UK economy by their inclusion as a foundational industry, essential to enabling growth in the strategy’s eight sectors through providing critical inputs and infrastructure.
The UK’s ports industry is largely privately owned and operated, with government’s role primarily to ensure that the policy and regulatory environment supports efficient operation and investment. The Government is streamlining planning and regulatory processes for ports, including by updating the National Policy Statement for Ports. The Government is also committed to investing in road and rail connections to ports to improve the efficient and cost-effective transportation of goods and passengers.
In addition, the Government is working closely with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator on fundamental reforms to the grid connections process that will release up to 500GW of capacity from the connections queue. This may enable ports to electrify more quickly where capacity is released in port locations.
Finally, the Government is deploying capital at scale through the National Wealth Fund, with ports being one of the five sectors to which it has committed at least £5.8 billion.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of delays to driving licence renewals; and when they expect these issues will be resolved.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online services are the quickest and easiest way to renew a driving licence. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their driving licence within a few days. However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application for a driving licence and the DVLA receives 60,000 items of mail each day. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found on GOV.UK.
The DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham to house more staff to help reduce waiting times while providing future resilience and business continuity.
These measures are having a positive impact. In particular, the focus on vocational driving licence applications to support dealing with the HGV driver shortage has been successful with routine vocational applications now back within normal turnaround times despite a significant increase in applications. The remaining queues are reducing, and customers will see an improving picture in terms of turnaround times over the next few months.