Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will take steps to inspect and take into custody uninsured tankers sailing through UK waters.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
As a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNLCOS), the UK cannot disrupt the transit of vessels through its territorial waters for lacking insurance, as this is not considered to fall within any of the exceptions to ‘innocent passage’.
Vessels which call into UK ports, however, are subject to the Port State Control Regime, which includes the inspection of the insurance documentation for the vessels and enforcement action if necessary.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people were killed in collisions where the driver was under the influence of drugs in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, (5) 2023, and (6) 2024.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Data on road injury collisions are reported by police using the STATS19 system. Police officers who attend the scene can assign factors to a driver if they believe that they may have contributed to the collision occurring.
The number of fatalities from collisions where the road safety factor “affected by drugs” was assigned to the driver of a motor vehicle for the years 2019 to 2023 are shown in the table below.
Data for 2024 will be published in September 2025.
Year | Fatalities |
2019 | 90 |
2020 | 92 |
2021 | 78 |
2022 | 96 |
2023 | 144 |
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that (1) driving lessons, and (2) driving tests, are (a) available, and (b) affordable.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is to reduce car practical driving test waiting times, whilst upholding road safety standards.
As of 9 September 2024, there were 556,774 car practical driving tests booked, and 91,059 driving tests available within the 24-week booking window.
Measures already in place to reduce waiting times for customers at driving test centres. These include the recruitment of driving examiners, conducting tests outside of regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from driving examiners. The Secretary of State for Transport has met with the Chief Executive of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to discuss solutions to barriers to obtaining a driving test.
The DVSA also continues to deploy examiners from areas with lower waiting times into those centres with longer waiting times. This is in addition to the DVSA recruiting additional examiners across the country into areas where waiting times are highest.
The DVSA does not employ driving instructors so has no control over what they charge for their services, including lessons.
Driving test fees are set in legislation.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent oil spills by the Russian shadow fleet in the English Channel.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The Government is working with likeminded partners, including the G7+ Coalition, to respond to violations of the Oil Price Cap and to disrupt Russia’s shadow fleet. This includes imposing additional sanctions measures on those engaged in deceptive practices while transporting Russian oil. The UK has already imposed sanctions on individuals and entities involved in Russia’s shadow fleet and we are preparing to bolster our existing powers to target individual shadow fleet vessels.
We are also enhancing monitoring and enforcement and supporting industry with sanctions compliance by updating rules and regulations as necessary. This includes the Oil Price Cap Compliance and Enforcement Alert issued by the G7+ Coalition on 1st February this year. The alert sets out the shadow fleet’s methods of oil price cap evasion to support stakeholders with identifying evasion and reporting it, so that enforcement action can be taken.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to introduce regulations to require vessels travelling through the Strait of Dover to provide proof of adequate insurance.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
It is not possible as a matter of both international and domestic law to introduce regulations of this nature.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact upon national security of Chinese-made electric vehicles; and whether they plan to further investigate any risks that may arise.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
DfT co-chairs the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) group that developed two new international regulations related to connected vehicles – one on cyber security and one on software updates. The cyber security regulation sets out requirements to mitigate potential threats in vehicle construction, to monitor emerging threats and to respond to cyber attacks.
The Government takes national security extremely seriously. The Department for Transport (DfT) works closely with the transport sector and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and other Government departments, including the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), to understand and respond to cyber vulnerabilities associated with all connected vehicles, including electric vehicles.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Davies of Gower on 14 February (HL2349), in what form the information on vessel transponders is collected; and where is it published.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
The Government does not routinely collect information on vessel transponders.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they keep records of the occasions when oil tankers in the English Channel have turned off their transponders.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
This data is not regularly collated in this form. The Joint Maritime Security Centre provides regular reporting on vessels of interest in the UK Marine Area.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether emergency planning is in hand in the event of an uninsured tanker leaking oil in British waters.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
Regardless of the insurance status of a vessel, the UK has well-established plans/protocols for the response to an oil spill. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is the National Competent Authority for at-sea pollution response. MCA Counter Pollution and Salvage (CPS), under the direction of HM Coastguard, are custodians of the national pollution response resources which comprise specialist oil containment and recovery equipment and dispersant. These are supported by manned aircraft for spill surveillance, verification and quantification and aerial dispersant spraying capability. Personnel and resources are in place 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year and provide an incident management and response capability anywhere within the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Regular exercises are undertaken to test national multi-agency spill response procedures.
Whilst shoreline pollution response is led by local authorities and devolved nations, MCA CPS will support pollution response along the UK shoreline using nationally held containment and recovery capability held in the stockpiles.
Incident management, specialist response teams, and liaison personnel are also available and will be activated by the MCA as required. As with at-sea pollution response, regular engagement with local authorities in response exercises is undertaken. The resources held by the MCA are commensurate with a Tier 3 national response requirement as described within the National Contingency Plan for Pollution from Shipping and Offshore Installations.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of ships in the ‘dark fleet’ passing through the English Channel carrying Russian oil and oil products in (1) 2020, (2) 2021, (3) 2022, and (4) 2023.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
Definitions of the ‘shadow fleet’ or ‘dark fleet’ vary and so it is not possible to provide accurate figures in relation to the English Channel. This practice has emerged since the introduction of the Russian Oil Services ban and Oil Price Cap Exception by the Price Cap Coalition of the G7, the European Union and Australia in December 2022.
However, the Joint Maritime Security Centre provides Department for Transport officials with daily vessel tracking reports for Vessels of Interest within or thought to be heading towards the UK Marine Area. This can include ships where a Russian link is identified, or where the vessel has transited from a Russian port, or engaged in a Ship-to-Ship transfer with a vessel which has departed from a Russian port.