Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what advice, support and guidelines are given to local authorities regarding home to school transport, and whether they are given guidance on the restrictions they can impose in cutting transport costs.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. My hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards is keen to understand how well home-to-school transport supports all children to access educational opportunity and she is working with departmental officials on this. The department is aware of the challenges currently faced by local authorities in arranging home-to-school travel for all eligible children, and knows that the cost of doing so has increased in recent years. We are grateful for their considerable efforts in ensuring eligible children can continue to get to school.
Local authorities are required to arrange free home-to-school travel for all eligible children, but it is for them to decide what travel arrangements to make, for example, providing a bus pass, a school bus or a taxi.
The department publishes statutory guidance to assist local authorities in meeting their home-to-school travel duties, which is attached and is also accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance. Departmental officials also host bi-monthly online meetings, to which all local authority school travel officers are invited to share good practice and seek advice from one another and the department.
Most of the increase in the cost of home-to-school travel can be attributed to transport for children with special educational needs. This is largely due to an increase in the number of children with education, health and care plans, and the number of those children who travel long distances to a school that can meet their needs. The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools so fewer children need to travel long distances to schools that meet their needs. This will reduce home-to-school travel costs for local authorities over time.
Most central government funding for home-to-school travel is provided through the local government finance settlement, which is administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The government recognises the challenges local authorities are facing. At the Autumn Budget 2024, we announced £1.3 billion of new grant funding in the 2025/26 financial year for local government to deliver core services. Together with local income from council tax and business rates, this will provide a real-terms increase in core spending power of around 3.2%.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the statutory guidance Travel to school for children of compulsory school age published in January, whether parents are entitled to an explanation of why their child has been allocated a school placement in another education authority, whether such a decision can be made on the basis of transport costs alone, whether route risk assessments are required, and what account is taken of safety and accessibility of transport routes when allocating children to schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
School places are not allocated on the basis of transport costs, route risk assessments or the safety and accessibility of transport routes. The statutory school admissions code sets out how school places should be allocated and exists to ensure that school places are allocated in a fair and transparent way.
Parents express a preference as to the school they would like their child to attend. Schools must publish the criteria they will use to allocate places if they are over-subscribed, so that parents have as much idea as possible of their chance of securing a place at each school they are considering applying for. A school that has places available must admit all children who apply. If a school receives more applications than it has places available, it must allocate the available places in accordance with its admissions criteria. If a parent cannot be offered a place for their child at any of the schools for which they have applied, the local authority should offer a place at an alternative school. Parents refused a place at a school for which they have applied can appeal to an independent appeal panel.
Home-to-school travel is an integral part of the school system and seeks to ensure that no child of compulsory school age is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport, but it plays no part in the allocation of school places. Local authorities are required to arrange free home-to-school travel for children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school if they live more than the statutory walking distance from it (2 miles for children under 8 and 3 miles for children aged 8 and over), or live within the walking distance but would not be able to walk there because of their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so.
Where a child’s nearest school is full and unable to offer them a place, the nearest school with a place available becomes their nearest school for home-to-school travel purposes. The school to which a child is eligible for free travel may be in a different local authority area to the one in which they live.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they plan to take in response to the recent report by the Office of Rail and Road which showed that a quarter of stations in England had Help Points that were not working.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
All Train Operators are required to regularly report on customer experience as part of their contracts, including the availability and condition of assets such as Help Points, and it is disappointing if station help points are not working.
We want to make sure passengers get the information they need when they need it, and we welcome the report and support the Office of Rail and Road’s challenge for the industry to improve.
We will continue to monitor and discuss performance with train operators, including through the targets we set for customer experience.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what improvements they are considering to rolling stock alarm systems in order to increase confidence in passenger safety, particularly among women, and whether they plan to assess the effectiveness of the IlluminateSafe system proposed for use alongside the current Call for Aid system.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department is working closely with all partners in industry including the Rail Delivery Group and the British Transport Police to ensure that the rail network is a safe environment for the travelling public. Whilst we are always interested in new innovations to the market we have no current plans to assess the effectiveness of this product.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to halting the introduction of floating bus stops in order (1) to assess the risks and accessibility to passengers with sight impairment, and (2) pending a review of the relevant guidelines issued to local authorities.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department is aware of the concerns raised by some groups, particularly visually impaired people, over the use of floating bus stops and is working with Active Travel England on ways to address these concerns.
The Department is currently looking at wide range of options in developing next steps. This is a complex issue and risks and benefits for pedestrians and cyclists need to be considered carefully.
The Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee provides advice on disability transport issues in their role as a statutory advisory body, including advice on buses and local transport. In addition, the Department engages regularly, and consults with, a wide range of stakeholders, including groups representing the needs of disabled people.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to consult groups representing disabled people and other pedestrians and passengers before introducing future guidelines for local authorities on the installation of floating bus stops.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department is aware of the concerns raised by some groups, particularly visually impaired people, over the use of floating bus stops and is working with Active Travel England on ways to address these concerns.
The Department is currently looking at wide range of options in developing next steps. This is a complex issue and risks and benefits for pedestrians and cyclists need to be considered carefully.
The Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee provides advice on disability transport issues in their role as a statutory advisory body, including advice on buses and local transport. In addition, the Department engages regularly, and consults with, a wide range of stakeholders, including groups representing the needs of disabled people.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority will retain independent commissioners, as is currently the case with the National Infrastructure Commission, as recommended by the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will combine the functions of the National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure and Projects Authority. NISTA will bring oversight of strategy and delivery into one organisation, driving more effective delivery of infrastructure across the country.
As announced by the government in October, NISTA will be operational by Spring 2025. NISTA’s governance will be confirmed 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 intend to undertake an interim review of the Simpler Fares pilot scheme on London North Eastern Railway; and what are the reasons for the two-year length of the pilot scheme.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
An evaluation is underway to assess the impact of the trial, this is expected to be completed next year and we intend to publish this in due course. Further data is required to validate findings over a longer time period and account for seasonality. The results of this trial will be carefully considered before taking any further decisions. The two-year length allows time for this process.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to require London and North Eastern Railway to run direct services between Sunderland and London Kings Cross beyond December.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
There are no plans to require London North Eastern Railway to run direct services between Sunderland and London Kings Cross beyond December 2024. Sunderland will continue to have direct London services provided by Open Access operators. Additionally, improvements to the Metro network will improve connectivity in the North East.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government why work on the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce was paused in July; what plans they have to take the evidence received by the taskforce up to that point into account in future work; and when they plan to make a final decision on the future of the taskforce, or any successor body.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce was paused in June 2024 so that ministers could assess the work of the taskforce so far, and determine how it fitted into the Government’s priorities for the Department.
However, the work carried out to date on the taskforce was incredibly valuable and remains important to the Department's work. We are committed to progressing work in this area and we will set out more details on next steps for the taskforce in due course.