Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many accidents involving e-scooters that required medical treatment have been reported since July 2020.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data on personal injury road accidents is collected via the STATS19 system of accidents reported by the police. Although e-scooters are not currently one of the designated vehicle types in STATS19, guidance has been issued to police forces to identify them using the free text field for other vehicles.
Data for 2020 are currently being collated and validated. Subject to the data recorded in the free text field being of sufficient quality, we intend to publish data on e-scooters and other vehicle types which can be reliably identified from the free text field alongside the annual Reported Road Casualties Great Britain statistics publication in September 2021.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria they used to determine which countries should be placed on the list of countries from which they have banned travel as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; what plans they have to add further countries to that list; and what steps they are taking to ensure that any arrivals from those countries who cannot be refused entry to the UK quarantine in hotels.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The decision to introduce travel bans is in direct response to new scientific and medical data, which represents an increased risk to UK public health and an increased risk of community transmission of the new COVID-19 variants identified in other countries. These are temporary measures and the government keeps data for countries and territories under constant review.
The Government has made it consistently clear that it will take decisive action to contain the virus, including imposing travel bans if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.
The introduction of additional measures including hotel quarantine will be an important measure in the Government’s border response. Plans are urgently in development and the Government will set out a detailed implementation plan in due course.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with President-elect Biden about opening an air travel corridor between London and New York.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes that air connectivity between the UK and US is very important.
The Government engages regularly with its international partners, both on a bilateral basis and through international forums, to discuss issues pertaining to international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This includes how testing schemes may be used to allow for greater levels of travel between countries, and more flexibility for passengers with regards to self-isolation requirements following travel.
Travellers from the US will be able to opt into the Government’s ‘Test to Release’ scheme from 15 December.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many accidents in England involving (1) pedestrians, (2) motor vehicles, and (3) other cyclists, have been caused by cyclists using mobile phones while cycling (a) in the past 12 months, and (b) in the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The number of accidents involving where the contributory factor ‘Driver using mobile phone’ was allocated to a pedal cyclist, by road user involved, in England, between 2013 and 2018 can be found in the below table. 2018 is the latest year for which data is available.
Contributory factors assigned by police officers do not assign blame for the accident to any specific road user, however they do provide some insight into why and how road accidents occur. They give an indication of which factors the attending officer thought contributed to the accident. Officers do not need to carry out a full investigation of the incident before allocating contributory factors; they usually use professional judgement about what they can see at the scene. Not all accidents are included in the contributory factor data; only accidents where the police attended the scene and reported at least one contributory factor are included.
Reported road accidents where the contributory factor (CF)1 of 'driver using a mobile phone' was assigned to a pedal cyclist, by road user involved, England, 2013-2018 | ||||||
| ||||||
Accidents involving road user | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Injured pedestrian | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Motor vehicle | 12 | 13 | 10 | 13 | 12 | 8 |
Other pedal cyclist (not allocated with CF) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Source: DfT, STATS19 | ||||||
1 Includes only accidents where a police officer attended the scene and in which a contributory factor was reported. | ||||||
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how long the consultation period on a national ban on pavement parking, announced on 12 March, is planned to be; and when there will be a detailed plan with a time frame for action to address issues caused by pavement parking.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department is committed to launch the public consultation over the summer which will run for 12 weeks. Ministers will decide the appropriate course of action in light of the consultation findings, which will determine the timeframe for delivering a solution to this problem.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they have given to local authorities about carrying out consultations with local communities ahead of the implementation of travel schemes funded from their emergency active travel fund for local authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic announced by the Secretary of State on 23 May, in view of the eight week deadline for the implementation of such schemes; and what steps they are taking to ensure that the use of Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders by local authorities in such schemes does not bypass local democratic accountability.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
To help authorities deliver at pace, new emergency legislation came into force on 23 May 2020 to help speed up the Emergency Traffic Order process in cases where measures are being introduced to deal with the effects of coronavirus. The main change is to how orders are advertised, which can now be done via digital means. It is for the Traffic Authority to decide which type of Order to use to introduce changes and to comply with the relevant regulations. Orders can be Emergency, Permanent, Temporary or Experimental.
The Department has reminded local authorities of the need to consult businesses and other stakeholders before introducing road space reallocation measures in their proforma for Tranche 1 of the Emergency Active Travel Fund. It is for local authorities, to take decisions at the local level, on where and how to consult wider local communities.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that rail companies communicate effectively with passengers about the season ticket refund process; and whether the length of time it is taking to refund such claims is acceptable in view of the Secretary of State for Transport’s commitment to such refunds on 23 March so that "no one is unfairly out of pocket for doing the right thing".
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Since 17 March over 160,000 season ticket holders have received refunds totalling over £260 million in response to COVID-19 travel restrictions. We are monitoring train operators’ refund processing times to ensure that refunds are paid as quickly as possible. Train operators have allocated additional resources to process the unprecedented number of refund requests, and the majority are being paid within the industry standard processing time of one month.
We have worked with train operators to ensure they are providing clear information on their websites about the season ticket refund process including estimates of the expected claim processing time and a refund calculator, so passengers know when they should receive their refund and are reassured that the time taken to process their claim will not affect the amount refunded.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of buses in the UK are currently zero-emission; what percentage of new bus orders are zero-emission; and whether they have a target for the number of zero-emission buses by 2025; and if so, what is that target.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes that it is right to reduce NOx and carbon emissions on the UK bus fleet. That is why it has provided over £240 million so far to help fund the cleanest buses, and in February 2019 announced the winners of a £48 million scheme which will fund a further 263 zero emission buses. Currently 17% of the UK bus fleet is low emission and 1% is zero emission. In 2018 4.2% of all new bus orders were for a zero-emission bus. Whilst there is no target for the number of zero emission buses by 2025 the Government is committed to the decarbonisation of the UK bus fleet.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is a minimum legal time between the announcement of a train’s boarding platform and its subsequent departure; and what action they are taking to ensure that train operating companies do not disadvantage older passengers, passengers with young children, wheelchair users and passengers with a disability by not leaving enough time between the announcement of the platform and the train's departure.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
There is no minimum legal time between the announcement of a train's boarding platform and its subsequent departure.
The Department expects train operating companies and station operators to provide timely, accurate information to all passengers at every stage of their journey, including prior to departure. The National Rail Conditions of Travel place a responsibility on operators to make available information that will help passengers to plan and successfully complete their journey. All operators are required as a condition of their licence to have in place a Disabled People’s Protection Policy with a commitment to providing, wherever possible, clear and consistent aural and visual information of train departures and other relevant messages, particularly in the event of delays or disruption.
Station staff are encouraged to be alert to anybody who may require assistance.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the report by the Civil Aviation Authority, Airport accessibility report 2016/17, published in 2017, what action they have taken to encourage airports and airlines to reduce waiting times and improve the quality of the assistance provided to disabled passengers at Heathrow and other UK airports.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Department for Transport is looking at measures to improve accessibility at airports and on aircraft through our Aviation Strategy which is due to be published in 2019. This will build on the Civil Aviation Authority, Airport accessibility reports, through which the CAA have stepped up their compliance activity and efforts to improve the quality of assistance available for disabled passengers. The CAA is working closely with London Heathrow and other UK airports to support them in their work on implementing improvement plans so that all airports are fully accessible for disabled passengers.
In addition, the Department for Transport also launched its Inclusive Transport Strategy today (25 July 2018), which will look to improve accessibility at UK airports in conjunction with the Aviation Strategy.