Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Class 3 mobility scooters have been registered for road use in London in each of the last three years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The number of Class 3 mobility scooters licensed at the end of 2011, 2012 and 2013 in Greater London is as follows:-
2011: 2,666
2012: 3,129
2013: 3,697
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the expanded Air Development Fund announced in the Budget Statement 2014 will apply throughout the UK: and how that fund will operate in the devolved jurisdictions.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Chancellor announced in this year's Budget that funding to maintain existing air connectivity to London – first announced in the 2013 Spending Round last June – will increase from £10million to £20million per year, and would be expanded to include provision for start-up aid for new air routes from UK regional airports, including those in the devolved administrations, which handle fewer than five million passengers per year.
The Department for Transport is working with the Treasury to develop guidance that will clarify how the Government will ordinarily expect to interpret the European Union State aid guidelines on start-up aid for new air routes, and explain how the funding process will operate across the UK.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department and the Highways Agency are taking to reduce the risk of death or serious injury to road workers on the motorway network.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
As part of its Aiming for Zero safety programme, the Highways Agency established a Road Worker Safety programme designed to reduce risk exposure to road workers, a particular focus of which is to reduce the incidences of carriageway crossing by road workers. Within this programme, a number of projects have been commissioned to test simplifications and other changes to temporary traffic management arrangements to reduce road worker exposure to live traffic whilst maintaining standards of safety for road users. Some of these projects have been completed already; for example Signs Simplification, implemented December 2011, and Offside Signs Removal techniques, implemented November 2012.
The introduction of these innovative changes has already enabled a very substantial reduction in the number of carriageway crossings, leading to a proportionate reduction in road worker risk exposure. In March 2014 the Highways Agency published further guidance on the Offside Signs Removal technique, allowing it to be used to close a four lane carriageway. The Highways Agency is continuing to work with its supply chain to take forward further projects within this programme with the aim of further reducing road worker risk.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what commercial products his Department or the Highways Agency has mandated for use in road traffic management on the motorway network in the last 10 years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
There are no products used by the Highways Agency which have been mandated in terms of what is used for road traffic management. These products are used by staff and contractors for the Highways Agency and such items are procured using a specification via a tender arrangement and not directed by the Department for Transport, or Ministers.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department and the Highways Agency have made in delivering the Government's small and medium-sized enterprise procurement policy in road traffic management on the motorway network since 2010; what goods and services have been procured from which companies; at what cost; and what processes were used for the procurement of those goods and services.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Highways Agency has made the following progress in supporting the Department in delivering Government Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) procurement policy:
The Highways Agency awarded a Temporary Traffic Management framework (TTM) in March 2013 (estimated value £660 million over 4 years). Breaking down the lot structure for this encouraged application/interest from SME suppliers, resulting in one of the eight successful suppliers being an SME (Forest Traffic Services Ltd).
More broadly, since January 2010, 93 SME companies, names of which appear below, have been awarded HA contracts and/or task orders via frameworks, for the procurement of a range of goods, services and works with a total award value of just over £193m.