Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much per annum is allocated to road building in England, as opposed to maintenance.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
For the Strategic Road Network, funding for enhancements, which includes junction improvements and widening schemes as well as new roads has been allocated as follows as part of the Road Investment Strategy.
£m | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | Total |
| 2,027 | 1,773 | 1,983 | 2,228 | 2,474 | 10,485 |
For local roads funding varies depending on progress with individual local authority schemes and the amount would vary from year to year. In some cases schemes do not progress to construction due to low or poor value for money. The current forecast spend from 2023/24 onwards is as per the table below but these are liable to change as various schemes update their financial information.
£m | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | Total |
| 115.2 | 156.38 | 168.51 | 339.48 | 853.80 | 1,633.37 |
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much it would cost to reduce public transport fares by (1) 30 per cent, and (2) 40 per cent, taking into account the likely increase in passenger numbers.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Department does not have this information available.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding they estimate would have been needed to supplement the bus service improvement plans called for in March 2021 if the submissions of the local transport authorities had been implemented in full.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The total amount of funding requested by Local Transport Authorities for Bus Service Improvement Plans was £13.02bn. This figure includes all schemes, including those beyond the BSIP funding period.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT)’s Freight Electrification Map Commentary, published on 2 March, which found that “electrifying [these] ‘infill’ sections, which total less than 60 miles, would allow around 2 million train miles a year to be decarbonised”; and what plans they have to adopt that recommendation.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
We are in the process of reviewing the report and its findings. It is too early to say whether we have any plans to adopt the recommendations.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that any call for evidence they launch into road transport law would reference the substantial body of transport legislation that would be affected by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Officials across the Department for Transport are reviewing the stock of Retained EU Law relevant to road transport. As a part of this process, road transport law that is in scope of the Retained EU Law Bill is being reviewed to ensure that it is effective and fit for purpose. The Department will share more information on individual pieces of regulation in due course, whilst also ensuring it provides the information to keep the public Retained EU Law dashboard updated.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the cost of long distance railway fares; and what assessment they have made of the possibility of tapering the cost per mile of journeys after a certain distance for long distance fares
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Rail fares are influenced by multiple different factors, and there are a range of Advance fares available for many long-distance journeys that are priced highly competitively.
We have been clear in the Plan for Rail that we want to simplify the current mass of complicated fares and tickets, whilst protecting affordable turn up and go tickets and season tickets.
As part of this we will extend the single leg pricing trial to the rest of LNER’s network, making fares more flexible for passengers, and trial demand-based pricing on some LNER services.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will continue to support the bus industry after the end of March when the existing revenue support mechanisms expire; and what plans they have to give Traffic Commissioners notice of that decision in order to plan for any service withdrawals.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government has made available nearly £2 billion since March 2020, through emergency and recovery grants, to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on the bus sector. This support is currently in place until the end of March 2023. The Department is actively considering its support for the bus sector from April 2023 and will set out further details shortly.
We are actively engaging with operators, local authorities, and the Office of the Traffic Commissioner to ensure they are aware of this and that they receive sufficient notice. We welcome the recent statement published by Traffic Commissioners that they will seek to support operations with the notice period for changes to registrations.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make upgrades to smart motorways.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
We have paused the rollout of new smart motorways to collect more safety and economic data to make informed decisions on next steps.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to respond to the Roads policing review consultation, which was launched on 13 July 2020.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The call for evidence saw 149 responses submitted, many of which were incredibly detailed. We will publish once we have given the responses our full consideration.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their annual report Reported road casualties Great Britain, published on 29 September, what assessment they have made of the increase in the number of recorded road casualties in 2021 when compared to 2020 figures; and what steps, if any, they plan to take in response.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
There were an estimated 128,209 reported road casualties of all severities in Great Britain in 2021. This was an increase of 11 per cent compared to 2020, but 16 per cent lower than in 2019.
Recent trends in road casualties have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, they showed signs of a return to pre-pandemic levels, increasing compared to 2020 when casualty numbers were low, largely as a result of periods of lockdown resulting in a reduction in road traffic.