Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that the safety equipment installed on smart motorways has a high failure rate.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Smart motorways operate using a range of safety systems and are designed not to be reliant on one single piece of roadside technology for safe operation.
National Highways has worked hard to deliver a significant improvement in the performance of stopped vehicle detection (SVD), with all schemes now meeting performance requirements.
In their annual safety report published in December 2023, the ORR confirmed that SVD technology is now meeting performance requirements for detection rate, detection time, and false detection. The ORR will continue to monitor SVD performance closely.
Further, National Highways is investing more than £300m to maintain roadside technology and improve its performance during Road Period 2 (2020-2025). This includes £105m targeted at improving its systems and technology on All Lane Running (ALR) sections of smart motorway. Roadside technology on ALR smart motorways is given high priority.
National Highways has well-rehearsed contingency plans for both planned and unplanned outages. These include lowering speed limits, increasing patrols by its traffic officers, enhanced monitoring of CCTV, and using pre-positioned vehicle recovery to speed up attendance and clearance of stranded vehicles.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of fuel and energy consumption data to ensure that CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values remain representative of real-world emissions over time for manufacturers of new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles, as required by EU Regulation 2019/631.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is considering how to collect real-world CO2 emissions data, including consulting on whether such data should be captured through the MOT, and will continue to engage with interested parties as the methodology is finalised. The data collection methodology must be finalised before the first annual report can be produced.
The Department will assess real-world representativeness of CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values, once the methodology for collecting real-world data has been agreed with industry and subsequently introduced into law.
The Department is considering how fuel and energy consumption data could inform amendments to type approval testing procedures and certificates for petrol and diesel cars and light commercial vehicles. Specifically on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the Department intends to update the calculation procedure for their carbon dioxide emissions to respond to the widely recognised gap in their real-world emissions performance compared to official approval values. This will be consulted on in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their first annual report on how the real-world emissions gap will be addressed for the period 2021 to 2026, as required by EU Regulation 2019/631 on setting performance standards for new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is considering how to collect real-world CO2 emissions data, including consulting on whether such data should be captured through the MOT, and will continue to engage with interested parties as the methodology is finalised. The data collection methodology must be finalised before the first annual report can be produced.
The Department will assess real-world representativeness of CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values, once the methodology for collecting real-world data has been agreed with industry and subsequently introduced into law.
The Department is considering how fuel and energy consumption data could inform amendments to type approval testing procedures and certificates for petrol and diesel cars and light commercial vehicles. Specifically on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the Department intends to update the calculation procedure for their carbon dioxide emissions to respond to the widely recognised gap in their real-world emissions performance compared to official approval values. This will be consulted on in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the real-world representativeness of the CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values of new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles, as required by the Article 12(1) of EU Regulation 2019/631.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is considering how to collect real-world CO2 emissions data, including consulting on whether such data should be captured through the MOT, and will continue to engage with interested parties as the methodology is finalised. The data collection methodology must be finalised before the first annual report can be produced.
The Department will assess real-world representativeness of CO2 emissions and fuel or energy consumption values, once the methodology for collecting real-world data has been agreed with industry and subsequently introduced into law.
The Department is considering how fuel and energy consumption data could inform amendments to type approval testing procedures and certificates for petrol and diesel cars and light commercial vehicles. Specifically on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the Department intends to update the calculation procedure for their carbon dioxide emissions to respond to the widely recognised gap in their real-world emissions performance compared to official approval values. This will be consulted on in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are taking steps (1) to ensure that maritime infrastructure projects, including shoreside electrical power, can speedily connect to the National Grid, (2) to build infrastructure for shoreside electrical power at UK ports to help decarbonise shipping, and (3) to enable cruise ships to connect to shoreside electrical power when docked at UK ports to assist them in reducing emissions in port.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
On 22 November 2023, the Government published the Connections Action Plan (jointly with Ofgem) and the Transmissions Acceleration Plan. These reforms will speed up connections to the grid and the build of new transmission infrastructure in Great Britain. This may help unlock and speed up investment in new maritime infrastructure projects in Great Britain that are reliant on upgrades to the grid, including shore power projects.
In addition, the government announced £29.5m of R&D funding will be allocated to shore power projects at the Port of Aberdeen, Atlantic and Peninsula’s Falmouth Port and Portsmouth International Port under the Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure R&D competition. As well as helping to reduce shipping emissions at these locations, including from cruise ships that call at their shore power enabled berths, these demonstration projects will also provide valuable evidence to inform future industry investment, research, and policy and regulation development.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Future of Flight Action Plan, published on 18 March, what manufacturing standards will be in place for uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), and when, to ensure compliance with Regulation (EU) 2019/947 which requires operators to ensure UAS are capable of performing intended flights safely.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Regulation (EU) 2019/945 sets out the product standard requirements for uncrewed aircraft systems, which will come into force on the 1 January 2026 (as set out in Regulation (EU) 2019/947).
The CAA recently consulted on product standards and will be providing the department with recommendations on potential regulatory amendments. There are four areas that DfT particularly intend to focus on: remote ID, geo-awareness/fencing, lighting requirements and manufacturer requirements.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Future of Flight Action Plan, published on 18 March, what regulations are being considered to ensure that ‘temporary reserved areas’ do not impact citizens regarding (1) safety, (2) noise, (3) privacy, and (4) environmental impacts; and when they will provide the necessary regulatory frameworks.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The regulatory framework exists and Temporary Reserved Areas (TRAs) are applied for through the Airspace Change Process and are assessed by the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, which under Section 70 of the Transport Act 2000, has a duty to take a number of factors into account. This includes assessing that a high standard of safety is maintained in the provision of air traffic services; specific guidance on environment objectives contained within the Air Navigation Guidance 2017; and the process allows for consultation with potentially impacted stakeholders to raise concerns such as privacy.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Future of Flight Action Plan, published on 18 March, when they anticipate that the British Standards Institute will report on recommended performance standards for uncrewed aircraft systems for testing in operational non-segregated airspace environments known as ‘temporary reserved areas’.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is within the Action Plan for CAA to start an Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) sandbox this year to allows testing in non-segregated airspace environments.
Any recommended performance standards for uncrewed aircraft system testing will need to meet the expectations of the CAA, to ensure that all airspace users meet the necessary safety requirements.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Future of Flight Action Plan, published on 18 March, where the ‘temporary reserved areas’ will operate; and what will be the size of those areas.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Details of location and size are proposed by the industry, before assessment by the CAA on a case-by-case basis, to consider safety in the proposed operational environment.
Temporary Reserved Areas (TRAs) are applied for through the Airspace Change Process, which allows for consultation with potentially impacted stakeholders.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Future of Flight Action Plan, published on 18 March, what is their timeline to achieve operational ‘temporary reserved areas’ by end of 2024.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Operational temporary reserved areas (TRAs) are in use now and throughout 2024 for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) trials, enabling the CAA to validate the use of airspace policy concepts with real world use cases.