Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many trains per day have been cancelled so far in 2024; how this compares to the daily figure for 2023; and what action they are taking to work with the operating companies to reduce the number of cancellations.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department recognises that cancellations can be very inconvenient for passengers and prevents them from travelling with confidence. That is why the Department holds train operators to account for cancellations. The type of scrutiny depends on the reasons for these cancellations and the inconvenience to passengers.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes official cancellation statistics on its online Data Portal, which show that the number of services planned to run in Great Britain between 8 January 2023 and 6 January 2024 was 7,012,172. Of these, 336,289 were either fully or partially cancelled. Between 7 January 2024 and 2 March 2024, the number of services planned to run were 1,106,087, of which 47,904 services have been either fully or partially cancelled.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in putting an end to automated bots exploiting the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency driving test booking service by buying up appointments and reselling them at inflated prices, and ensuring a fair and transparent booking system for learner drivers.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is aware that some companies have been using bots or third-party applications to snap up appointments on its public booking service, as soon as they become available, leaving fewer test appointments for genuine learner drivers to purchase directly from the DVSA.
These apps or bots are not approved by the DVSA.
In January this year, the DVSA changed the terms and conditions for using the booking service to help prevent anyone from selling tests at profit. Since then, the DVSA has issued 192 warnings, 532 suspensions, and closed 438 businesses for misuse of its booking service.
To ensure its booking system is used correctly, the DVSA has also:
Following these changes, there has been a significant drop in traffic to these services because the DVSA is successfully identifying and blocking apps or bots. However, these applications are constantly evolving and changing and the DVSA’s work on this is ongoing
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with professional musicians and the airline industry to review rules on travelling with musical instruments which cannot be put in the hold; including the adoption of a clear and uniform policy for such instruments which would then be consistently applied.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The carriage of musical instruments that cannot be put in the hold is a matter for individual airline policy. However, these policies should be transparent and meet the relevant UK Regulation for stowage of articles in the cabin.
Most UK airlines permit the carriage of musical instruments in the aircraft cabin. Where permitted, airlines must ensure a procedure for safe carriage is documented in the operations manual.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have commissioned any recent studies on the safety implications of wearing of headphones while cycling.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
No recent studies have been carried out on the safety implications of wearing of headphones while cycling.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the introduction of mandatory safety measures, such as (1) helmets, and (2) an enforced speed limit, for the use of e-scooters.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department is currently considering options for construction and use regulations for e-scooters, which may include requirements for helmet use and a maximum design speed. We are drawing on the helpful work of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, Warwick Manufacturing Group, the Motorcycle Industry Association and others. However, no final decisions have been made.
The Department will consult publicly before any new arrangements come into force, thus providing an opportunity for interested parties to shape the new regime.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to build a regulatory framework to manage the cybersecurity risks associated with automated vehicle technology.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has committed to legislating for automated vehicles and is currently considering the recommendations published by the Law Commissions in January, which cover cyber security.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will announce their decision on the future policy for paving parking enforcement, following the Department of Transport’s consultation Pavement Parking: Options For Change which closed on 22 November 2020; and where the summary of responses, due to be published within three months of the consultation closing, can be found.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We will publish the formal consultation response and announce next steps as soon as possible. The formal consultation response will be available to view on the Gov.uk website at www.gov.uk/government/consultations/managing-pavement-parking
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current average waiting time for a driving test in Great Britain; how many driving examiners are currently employed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA); what assessment they have made of the number of driving examiners that need to be recruited to meet the demand for tests; and how long they forecast it will take to return driving test waiting times to levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) recognises the high demand for learners wanting to take their practical driving test following the suspension of routine driver training and testing during the pandemic.
As of 31 January 2022, the national average waiting time for a car practical driving test in Great Britain is 14.2 weeks.
The DVSA currently employs 1,710 driving examiners.
The DVSA is committed to the safe recovery of all its services as quickly as possible and has a number of measures in place to do this. These include offering a national recovery allowance and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays and weekends).
The DVSA is also continuing with its campaign to recruit more driving examiners across Great Britain to increase the availability of driving test appointments, which it will keep under review to meet demand.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to calculate the casualty rates per mile travelled for e-scooters; and what assessment they have made of the casualty rates involving e-scooters.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department is running trials of rental e-scooters to assess their safety and wider impacts, and has in place a monitoring and evaluation programme. The Department is collecting evidence on rental e-scooter casualties (including frequency and injury severity) through its national evaluation, and will be disclosing preliminary findings in its interim report, to be published in winter 2021. A full set of safety findings on rental e-scooters from our national evaluation, will be included in our final report, due in spring 2022.
Outside of the trials, e-scooters remain illegal to use, unless ridden on private land with the permission of the landowner. However, incidents involving them will be captured more widely in road safety statistics, which are reported on a calendar year basis. The latest annual published statistics are for 2020. Data on reported personal injury road accidents in Great Britain for 2021, will be published in 2022. More information on e-scooter road accidents can be found in the Reported road casualties Great Britain: e-Scooter factsheet 2020.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) what steps they are taking to ensure that HGV drivers are not being asked to exceed their daily legal driving limits during the current driver shortage, (2) what record they are keeping of accident statistics involving HGVs, and (3) whether they have recorded an increase in the number of accidents involving HGVs in the past six months.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is responsible for enforcement of the HGV drivers’ hours rules, which includes checking that drivers are not exceeding their daily driving limits. For the period 12 July to 3 October, the DVSA undertook a total of 11,457 targeted checks across both UK and overseas based hauliers. 6,962 offences were identified for non-compliance with the drivers’ hours rules of which 2,286 were serious enough to warrant a fixed penalty. The vast majority (2,099) were committed by foreign hauliers, with only 187 fixed penalties for drivers’ hours offences issued to UK hauliers. Some DVSA enforcement has been targeted specifically towards operators using the drivers’ hours relaxation.
Data on reported road casualties reported to the police, including accidents involving HGVs, are collected through the STATS19 system and published in the Department’s reported road casualties statistics according to a regular annual timetable that reflects the time required for reporting, collation and validation of the data from police forces.
High-level provisional statistics for the first 6 months of 2021 are scheduled for publication in November; figures for the whole of 2021 are scheduled for publication in June 2022 (provisional) and September 2022 (final).