Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will take steps to require local highway authorities to remove (a) racist and (b) other offensive graffiti from structures adjacent to the public highway without the authority of the owner.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Local highway authorities are responsible for maintaining the highway. This includes the removal of graffiti from publicly owned highway assets, such as bridges, traffic signs, and street furniture, as well as council-owned and other public buildings. The Department has no plans to extend this requirement to privately owned structures adjacent to the highway.
However, we do expect private owners of structures to act to remove offensive graffiti. If graffiti or flyposting is on private property, councils can issue a Defacement Removal Notice to the property owner, which requires them to remove the graffiti within 28 days.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on (a) the number of pedicabs outside Greater London that are licensed as (i) taxis and (ii) private hire vehicles and (b) the number and proportion of those pedicabs that are in (A) Oxford, (B) Salisbury, (C) Bristol and (D) Cambridge; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact on the number of licensed pedicabs of paragraph 8.3 of his Department's guidance entitled Taxi and private hire vehicle licensing best practice guidance for licensing authorities in England, updated on 17 November 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Outside London pedicabs can be licensed as taxis. Pedicabs cannot be licensed as a private hire vehicle as legislation defines a private hire vehicle as a motor vehicle. The Department for Transport issues guidance on licensing taxis and private hire vehicles to authorities who should consider the recommendations made and their obligation under the Regulators’ Code to carry out their activities in a way that supports those they regulate to comply and grow. The Best Practice Guidance to licensing authorities in England sets out that where there is local interest in providing pedicab services, licensing authorities should make appropriate adjustments to their licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles to accommodate these requests. Subject to the legal requirements, it is for licensing authorities to consider the appropriate licensing requirements to operate a pedicab under a taxi and taxi driver licence.
The Department does not hold data on the number of pedicabs licensed as taxis in England.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 8.3 of his Department's publication entitled Taxi and private hire vehicle licensing best practice guidance for licensing authorities in England, updated on 17 November 2023, what guidance his Department plans to provide on the appropriate adjustments that licensing authorities should make to their licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles to provide pedicab services outside Greater London.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Outside London pedicabs can be licensed as taxis. Pedicabs cannot be licensed as a private hire vehicle as legislation defines a private hire vehicle as a motor vehicle. The Department for Transport issues guidance on licensing taxis and private hire vehicles to authorities who should consider the recommendations made and their obligation under the Regulators’ Code to carry out their activities in a way that supports those they regulate to comply and grow. The Best Practice Guidance to licensing authorities in England sets out that where there is local interest in providing pedicab services, licensing authorities should make appropriate adjustments to their licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles to accommodate these requests. Subject to the legal requirements, it is for licensing authorities to consider the appropriate licensing requirements to operate a pedicab under a taxi and taxi driver licence.
The Department does not hold data on the number of pedicabs licensed as taxis in England.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the gross income of the DVLA was from fees for providing information about the personal details of the keepers of vehicles registered on the DVLA database in each of the last four years for which information is available; and how much of that income came from commercial parking companies.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The income from fees for providing information about keepers of vehicles registered on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) database is shown in the table below:
Financial Year | £m |
| 2019 – 20 | 23.29 |
| 2020 – 21 | 13.18 |
| 2021 – 22 | 23.90 |
| 2022 – 23 | 30.18 |
These fees are set to cover the costs of providing services to its customers.
The specific information requested about commercial parking companies is not held. The DVLA does publish information about who it shares its data with on GOV.UK. This includes volumes for enquiries made through the keeper at date of event (KADOE) service which provides details of the registered vehicle keeper on a specified date. This report includes electronic enquiries made by parking companies and can be viewed using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/who-dvla-shares-data-with.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport during the Second Reading of the Pedicabs (London) Bill [Lords] of 28 February 2024, Official Report, column 398, if he will publish the outline of a potential licencing framework for pedicabs provided by Transport for London in January 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Subject to its parliamentary passage, the Pedicabs (London) Bill will confer powers onto Transport for London (TfL) to regulate London’s pedicab industry.
It will be the responsibility of TfL to design and implement a regulatory regime. However, TfL will be required to conduct a consultation prior to bringing regulations forward, and Government expects this consultation would include details of the proposed licensing framework.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to regulate the use of autonomous vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government paper “Connected & Automated Mobility 2025: realising the benefits of self-driving vehicles in the UK” sets out government’s plans to support the development and deployment of safe self-driving vehicles in the UK. This includes proposals for a comprehensive regulatory, legislative and safety framework.
The Department is committed to these plans and will introduce primary legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to encourage local highway authorities to fund equipment that automatically detects the length, width and depth of potholes.
Answered by Richard Holden
Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge, needs, and circumstances. The Government has no powers to override local decisions in these matters.
By working with the UK Roads Leadership Group and other sector bodies, the Department for Transport encourages local highway authorities to be innovative by, for example, using different materials or new machinery; or by developing new ways of working. The Department engages regularly with local authorities to discuss and disseminate the results of trials of this sort and supports innovation in other ways including through the ADEPT Live Labs programme that is funded by the Department.
In terms of wider pothole prevention, a Lane Rental Scheme (LRS) is a tool to help highway authorities reduce the impact of works taking place on the busiest roads at the busiest times – those are likely to include key junctions and other pinch-points, plus the busiest and most congested stretches of road. Under an LRS, utility companies (and others undertaking Street works) working on such roads at peak times are required to pay a daily charge to the local highway authority for the duration of their works.
The charges paid to the local authority responsible for the scheme may be used to pay the costs for running the scheme, with any surplus monies raised to be spent in ways for purposes intended to reduce the disruption or other adverse effects arising because of works, including road defects created by utility companies.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the annual cost to the economy of road traffic congestion in England.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Managing traffic on local roads is the responsibility of local traffic authorities. They are subject to the Network Management Duty, which requires them to manage their roads to deliver ‘expeditious movement’ for all traffic including pedestrians. They have a wide range of tools already available to them to manage congestion and traffic flows.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport on 20 April 2023, Official Report, column 349, what the evidential basis is for his statement that Conservative councils repair around double the number of potholes as Liberal Democrat-controlled councils.
Answered by Richard Holden
Conservative Party research, based on Freedom of Information requests to individual councils.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the extra funding announced in the Budget for expenditure on potholes is spent on road maintenance.
Answered by Richard Holden
The additional highways maintenance funding announced in the 2023 Budget will be paid to local highways authorities in line with the Government’s broader approach to local government section 31 grant funding, which means that the funding will not be ring-fenced. However, the Department is allocating this funding to local highways authorities with the strong expectation that they spend it on maintaining and improving their respective networks based upon their local knowledge, circumstances, and priorities.