Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of investigations into the tax status of workers engaged by contractors or subcontractors on the delivery of HS2.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Transport Secretary has been clear allegations of fraud need to be investigated urgently and rigorously. Wherever fraud is found, there will be consequences for those involved. All whistleblower allegations received by HS2 Ltd are treated seriously and thoroughly investigated.
Danny Sullivan Group (DSG), a labour supply subcontractor to Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), has been under investigation for allegedly inflating invoices by including PAYE and NIC charges for self-employed workers who are not subject to these deductions. The matter was reported to HMRC on 29 May 2025, but further details cannot be disclosed in line with HMRC guidance. On Friday 4 July 2025, BBV terminated its labour supply agreement with Danny Sullivan Group following an independent investigation into the status of workers.
While HS2 Ltd does not hold direct contracts with labour suppliers, it requires its supply chain to comply fully with contractual and tax obligations and HS2 Ltd is continuing to conduct further investigations into labour supply contracts across the supply chain.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of drugs and alcohol as a contributory factor in road accidents in each of the past three years, and what actions they are proposing to take as a consequence.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport publishes statistics that show the number of personal injury road collisions, in Great Britain, reported to police using the STATS19 system which were assigned the “affected by alcohol” or “affected by drugs” road safety factors (RSFs). The number of collisions assigned these factors is shown in the table below.
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Collisions assigned “affected by alcohol” | 5,095 | 5,355 | 5,020 |
Collisions assigned “affected by drugs” | 1,827 | 1,908 | 2,078 |
Collisions assigned “affected by alcohol” and/or “affected by drugs” | 6,201 | 6,572 | 6,437 |
Collisions assigned any road safety factor | 67,193 | 70,661 | 68,917 |
All collisions, including those not assigned a road safety factor | 101,087 | 106,004 | 104,258 |
Driving under the influence of drink and drugs is unacceptable and illegal. We are determined to combat this behaviour and ensure that all such drivers are caught and punished.
My Department is considering these offences as part of the Road Safety Strategy, and we are considering policy options to pursue change in this area.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many public charging points for electric vehicles there are in each local authority area, and how many there will be in each of the next three years.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
As of 1 June 2025, the Government and industry have supported the installation of 80,552 publicly available charging devices across the UK (including 16,231 devices rated 50kW or above).
The latest data available regarding the number of public charging devices, for electric vehicles in each local authority area, in the UK, as at 1 April 2025, can be found in table 1a of the attached document.
The £381 million Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund has been allocated to all highest tier local authorities in England and will support the installation over 100,000 local chargers, ensuring the rollout continues at pace to support drivers across the country.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how, if at all, they publicise the specific location and availability of charging points for electric vehicles.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to making it easy for consumers to find public chargepoints. To support this, the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 came into effect in November 2023. These regulations require operators to share open data freely – including chargepoint location and availability information. This data is then made available to consumers via commercial platforms such as mapping services and roaming providers.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote the uptake of electric vehicles.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government is reducing the initial costs of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) by providing plug-in vehicle grants for vans, trucks, motorcycles, taxis and wheelchair accessible vehicles. Drivers of ZEVs also benefit from favourable tax rates, such as generous company car tax incentives. ZEVs will continue to have preferential first year rates of vehicle excise duty in comparison to the most polluting vehicles.
Government is also committed to increasing awareness of the benefits of ZEVs. We have been working with industry to create a more coordinated, focused cross-industry and Government approach to promoting ZEVs.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 16 June (HL8161), what precautions they are overseeing or initiating in seeking to minimise future disruption at UK airports.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The resilience of the UK aviation sector is important, and key to its success. It is the responsibility of the industry to manage demand, recruit, and roster staff. The aviation sector has increased resilience, with ground handlers, airlines, airports and air traffic control providers all undertaking significant recruitment campaigns, whilst investing in new infrastructure, equipment and technology.
The Aviation Minister regularly writes to industry to seek assurances from the aviation sector that they have sufficient resilience plans to manage operations effectively over peak periods, and the department continues to work closely with the sector to understand any potential risks and mitigating actions.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many charging points for electric vehicles (1) are available, and (2) have been confirmed in each the next three years, at service stations on each motorway.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
There has been strong progress from industry on the rollout of chargepoints on our Strategic Road Network (England’s motorways and major A-roads). There are now over 5,560 open-access rapid and ultra-rapid chargers (excluding Tesla-only superchargers) within one mile of the Strategic Road Network (Zapmap, April 2025), which includes over 1180 open-access rapid and ultra-rapid chargepoints specifically at motorway service areas in England, (industry data, April 2025). This means charger numbers on the Strategic Road Network, including at motorway services, have nearly quadrupled in the last three years (Zapmap and industry data, 2022 – 2025).
Government is continuing to work closely with industry to support their ambitious plans to continue rolling out chargepoints at sites to meet demand, and to address barriers to further roll-out.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what projects they have authorised for driverless vehicle trials; for what periods the trials will run; and subject to what conditions.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Currently there are no automated vehicles on UK roads operating without a safety driver. There are, however, several organisations who have tested, or are at present testing, vehicles with a safety driver under our existing ‘Code of Practice: automated vehicle trialling’. The Code of Practice is available to support those planning to undertake a trial of automated vehicle technology with a safety driver and sets out their legal responsibilities.
Some of these trials have been, and currently are, Government funded including projects operating at the National Exhibition Centre and in Cambridge from park & ride sites to the Biomedical Campus. A recently completed CCAV funded project also saw a shuttle service operating in Sunderland, linking the city to the hospital.
The Government announced on 10 June that it will accelerate the timeline for the introduction of Automated Passenger Services (APS) regulations, as set out in part 5 of the Automated Vehicles (AV) Act 2024, subject to the outcome of a consultation later this summer. These regulations will help facilitate early commercial pilots of automated passenger services, which could include those that are taxi-and private hire-like in England and bus-like in GB from spring 2026. These pilots will drive innovation, attract investment, and help shape the final automated vehicles framework, which we aim to have in place by the second half of 2027.
APS pilots will be subject to the vehicle passing all relevant technical and safety approvals and local licensing authority (including taxi licensing authority for taxi like services) or bus franchising body consent being secured before any deployment can take place. Permits issued to enable deployments will include conditions for the service, which could include, for example: the number of vehicles, the type of vehicles, and the period for which the permit is granted for. If these conditions are not adhered to, the permit may be suspended or withdrawn.
The Secretary of State must also consider whether and to what extent granting a permit for an automated passenger service is likely to help improve understanding of how these services should best be designed for and provided to disabled and older passengers. Accessibility considerations will be set out in non-statutory guidance and related permit conditions can be enforced through the permitting process.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact of the closure of Heathrow Airport due to the fire at the North Hyde substation on 21 March.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The UK aviation sector is predominantly privately operated therefore airports are responsible for managing their own contingency plans and ensuring that they are robust and meet their own individual circumstances.
The Department does not formally assess the impact of individual resilience issues due to the complexity of the impact and vast range of indirect impacts across the economy.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of progress being made towards developing road-worthy autonomous vehicles, and what steps they are taking to enable autonomous vehicles to be driven on roads legally.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
To achieve our ambitions for the automated vehicle sector, we are working at pace to implement the regulatory framework for self-driving vehicles in the second half of 2027.
We are exploring options for accelerating early commercial pilots in advance of full implementation and will update on this work soon. By combining long-term regulatory certainty with near-term trialling opportunities, we are creating the right conditions for a thriving self-driving vehicles market.
Alongside developing our domestic regulations, we are playing a leading role in work to align international rules and regulations on self-driving, which will enable our companies to export globally. This work is anticipated to complete in early 2027.