Driving Tests: Secondary Market

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

This system has to allow people to book tests at the time that they need them. I did not say that 25% had been through one of these websites; I said that a quarter of total test bookings had been swapped from one licence to another. Of course, the reason why you would go to a driving instructor who has a number of pupils is that a driving instructor can apply for a test for one pupil and then transfer it to another if the second pupil is making faster progress than the first. That is how it should be. The number of people going through these agencies is clearly more than zero and, since it is, we should do something about it. But we have to do that in a way that does not prevent driving instructors from running decent businesses and also allows people to change their bookings when they need to. That is what takes time and care, and that is what the DVSA is working on.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, would it not be possible just to allow driving instructors to book on behalf of someone else and make it illegal for anyone else to do it?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his question. Many tests are booked by the applicants themselves, and there cannot be any reason why you could not be able to do that, as a potential holder of a driving licence. Equally, driving instructors have to be able to run a business, and one of the benefits of going to a registered driving instructor is that they have some flexibility in tests for their pupils.

Electric Scooters and Electric Bicycles: Pedestrian Safety

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I certainly know that the noble Lord has a strong view on this. We had a debate in the autumn and, as I said, a Question on this before Christmas. He is right in saying that there is a limit to the legal use of pedal cycles—a maximum assisting speed of 15.5 miles per hour and a maximum power of 250 watts—and it is clear that plenty of e-cycles have been either sold or adapted that do in excess of that and, as a result, are in fact motor vehicles and should be registered, licensed, ridden and insured as such. In the end, it is up to chief police officers to enforce this. He is remarking on a subject of growing concern in our urban areas, which should be addressed by chiefs of police.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, many bikes are being imported from abroad that are illegal. Do the Government have any plans to clamp down on the illegal importation of vehicles that should not be on the road?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

My noble friend is right: there are plenty of imports and plenty of illegal sales of these in this country. It is a trading standards matter and there has been some action. If I leaf through these pages fast enough, I will be able to find the statistics for what we know about what has happened so far. But, of course, that is a local authority matter. In the end, we need legislation. It is a shame that it did not start with e-scooters. The Government are committed to doing something. The subject of the original Question—the effect on disabled people—is clearly of great concern and we will seek to address it.

Cost of Living: Rail Fares

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 6th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

The pay increase for train drivers and other railway staff, made last July, was in truth very little different from the proposals of the previous Government—although these were manipulated so that the dispute was unresolved for many months, leading to a huge loss in revenue for the railway. The previous Government’s proposals had no productivity conditions attached to them. This Government were not in a position to offer productivity conditions, simply because many of the train companies had not developed proposals that would enable a wage deal to be made.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Wigley (PC)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

The shortage of drivers, and in some cases train managers and guards, is endemic and a result of insufficient attention being paid over a long period of time—including the period in which the last Government were in control—leaving the train companies without enough staff to staff the service. This Government intend to do something about the numbers of drivers, train managers and guards. We also intend to make running the railway a seven days per week issue rather than, in many cases, a railway where six days are rostered and the seventh day is dependent on people volunteering to work on rest days.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, under the last Tory Government, we saw it become cheaper sometimes to fly to New York than to get a train from Manchester to Euston. Will the Government’s action make train travel affordable for ordinary people? At the moment, we have been left with a legacy where many people cannot afford to travel by train.

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his question. The truth of the matter is that, although regulated fares are controlled by the Government, there are many other fares on the railways, some of which produce eye-wateringly expensive charges for what used to be the traditional peak period, while others are extraordinarily cheap, even by continental standards. One of the many jobs that this Government have to do in reforming the railways is to rationalise the 50 million fares, making them affordable and understandable for passengers in order to improve revenue and improve demand on the railway.

E-scooters and E-bikes

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

The Government are committed to a crime and policing Bill—I was discussing it with my noble friend Lord Hanson of Flint just before Questions—which will look at the plight of local communities being plagued by anti-social behaviour. That Bill is intended to give the police stronger powers to stop vehicles being used to bring misery to our neighbourhoods, with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizing them. That will allow them to swiftly deal with off-road bike nuisance in public parks and dangerous e-scooters on pavements, as well as street racing and cruising.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, Spain has started a scheme to identify those riding e-scooters who are driving too fast and are not wearing helmets, and a €100 on-the-spot fine has been introduced. Should we consider that?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I have with me a summary of the way in which 22 European countries have dealt with e-scooters. One of the most striking things is that there is no consistency across Europe or across the other countries surveyed about how to deal with this. One of the challenges of the legislation opportunity that we will take is to work out what is best for this country. There are all sorts of variations: minimum ages, whether you can ride them on pavements and whether you need mandatory helmets, and one or two countries have registration schemes—though that seems as hard for e-scooters as it might be for bicycles. We will have to work through what the best scheme is for this country in order to put forward the appropriate legislation.

Rail Performance

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 13th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate the Minister. After 13 or 14 years of a Government who seemed committed to keeping a dispute with the rail unions going for as long as they could and doing nothing to solve the problems of the railway, today we are hearing of all the problems that still exist, but they are historic. I am very pleased that the Minister is doing a root-and-branch attack on all the issues that need to be addressed if we are to have a modern railway system. Does he agree that we need to move as quickly as we can?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I do.

Shadow Great British Railways: Chair Appointment

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 12th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

Since Covid, the railway has got only four-fifths of its previous income. The train operating companies are now, in effect, flat contractors to government and their owners are unable to take much, if any, financial risk. The service to passengers is not as good as it should be, and the Government’s policy is designed to make that significant change.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, under the last Government, it was cheaper to fly to New York than it was to travel from Manchester to Euston by train. Will the Minister do something about the overpricing of trains to make them more competitive?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

Fares on the railway are so complicated that even the people who sell them do not understand them. Some of them look absurdly expensive; some are very cheap. It is very possible to sit in a carriage where nearly everybody has paid a different fare for the same journey. The passengers wholeheartedly dislike it. One of the reasons for public ownership of the railways is to get commercial sense back into a sensible fares and ticketing system, which will attract passengers to the network.

Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill

Lord Watts Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 6th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

My Lords, I made no reference to good or evil. I am talking about operational efficiency. I am sure the noble Lord is correct in drawing attention, as has happened several times today, to the deficiencies of the current operation of the west coast main line, but other noble Lords have rightly drawn attention to the fact that there are private sector operators in this country currently operating with the efficiency levels that he refers to, and better—so the private sector has a lot to be said for it as well.

The fact is that public ownership is something about which the country largely breathed a sigh of relief when we moved away from it—rightly or wrongly, whatever the history behind that might have been—and every other European country over the last few years has moved away from exclusive public ownership operation. Even train companies such as Deutsche Bahn, which stood once at the pinnacle of public regard, are now something of a joke in their own country.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

I am only trying to move an amendment.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

It is the introduction to it that is the problem. Is it not the case that the public support public ownership of the railways, and that the public sector had to take over the east coast line because the private company failed to deliver the service?

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord brings me to exactly my point. The benefits of public ownership that the noble Lord was able to refer to were, first, that it is popular and, secondly, that it was in the manifesto. Those two things might be absolutely true, but they are not quantifiable passenger benefits. They are not passenger benefits at all; they are political facts that sit there in the background.

Of course the system has broken down, especially since Covid. I have acknowledged that, and the need for reform. What this amendment seeks to do is allow a degree of variability, non-uniformity, difference of practice, choice, options to the Government, rather than having a single, purely nationalised, purely state-controlled machine that we are told will bring us benefits, one of which, as far as I can make out, will be flexibility.

I really did not discern any others, except that we will not be paying fees to private sector operators—a point the Minister has made several times. We will not, but in the picture of the cost of running the railways the fees are extremely small; they are a tiny percentage of what is involved. If the private sector can continue, post Covid, to generate the sort of growth in passenger numbers that it generated before Covid after privatisation, and we can get back to those happy days, the amount of money being paid to operators would be swamped by the revenues that would be coming in. That is the bar that public ownership has to match and we have no guarantees that it will do so. We are asked to take the whole thing on trust. To that extent, I wish to press my Amendment 5 and test the opinion of the House on it.

Road Investment Strategy

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 11th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

If the objective is economic growth, jobs and housing—I am pleased that the noble Lord agrees—we should choose those transport projects that contribute the most to it in various parts of the country. I have a wry smile because he was the deputy chair of Transport for London when I was the commissioner, and between us we probably removed more road space from the streets of central London for a Conservative mayor, so I am not sure that this alleged war on motorists is quite as one-sided as he might suppose. It is very important that the highways are managed in the best way possible because transport is a facilitator of growth, jobs and housing. The projects that we are able to choose to fund in these difficult circumstances should always be the ones that deliver the most in those categories.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, filling in potholes is a temporary measure. On many of our roads, the substructure has gone because of a lack of investment over many years, especially under the last Government. Are the Government trying to do something about the long-term state of our roads?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Lord that filling potholes is a temporary measure. It is a shorthand for having the roads in better condition. I could bore the House with how the condition of roads is measured, but I will not. Filling potholes is a temporary measure; we are using that phrase to seek to improve the general condition of roads for the safety of all road users.

High-speed Rail Services: West Coast Main Line

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

The noble Lord’s question in relation to Euston is germane in relation to the usefulness of HS2. The Government have been left with a position where many things have been promised and there is not enough funding for them all. However, we are reviewing the position on Euston urgently and intend to respond when we can to the proposition to extend HS2 from Old Oak Common to Euston.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD)]

My Lords, it is this side. I have been waiting for a train for 20 minutes.

I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, for asking the first friendly Question on railways in the almost 10 years that I have been in this House. He hits the nail on the head. What matters is capacity; this was never about speed. Many times, you get on a train at Euston and the train manager says, “If we don’t leave in two minutes, we’ll be behind the slow train to Milton Keynes or Watford”, and, similarly, from Crewe. Will the Minister liaise with the elected mayors of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham and keep trying to work with them? They are the people who understand more about the need to move people around for business, pleasure, leisure and life opportunities.

Also, in the spirit of glasnost, can the Minister keep this House involved in future progress? As the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, just said, the money must come from somewhere. It has been found for the pay offer for the rail drivers. Perhaps it can now be found for the public who travel on those trains.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, this side!

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My apologies: I believe that this is a question for the Conservative Benches.

HS2

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

A project is already in execution to improve railway connectivity between Manchester and Leeds, the trans-Pennine route upgrade. It is currently valued at some £11 billion and is in the course of delivery.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, when the last Government cancelled High Speed 2, they said that they would transfer the money into northern schemes but, as we know, a lot of it was spent in other areas. Can the Minister guarantee that when the review takes place, he will make sure that the north gets its fair share of transport infrastructure?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

Reintroducing the High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill will be great evidence that the Government are thinking of improving easy-west connectivity in northern England and continuing the work that the trans-Pennine upgrade is already starting for a modern, high-speed and high-capacity railway all the way across between Liverpool, Hull and other places on the east coast.