Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has provided for transport projects in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Coventry in each of the last three years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has spent £8.4 billion on transport in the West Midlands region over the last three years, improving connectivity, shortening journey times, reducing congestion, and transporting people and goods.
Figures are not available at the level of individual local authorities. However, in Coventry, recent Government investment includes;
Coventry also stands to benefit from allocations to West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) including
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of trends in the levels of sales of (a) new cars and (b) electric vehicles in each of the last five years.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Data for vehicle sales is not available, however the number of cars registered for the first time in the United Kingdom for the last five years is shown in the table.
Year | All Fuel Types | Battery Electric Cars |
2017 | 2,564,330 | 13,913 |
2018 | 2,394,042 | 15,756 |
2019 | 2,346,576 | 38,007 |
2020 | 1,656,403 | 107,913 |
2021 | 1,677,245 | 190,420 |
Source: Department for Transport (DfT) and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of anti-social behaviour incidents on public transport in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England in (i) each of the last three years and (ii) during the Covid-19 outbreak; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of anti-social behaviour on public transport in those areas.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
From British Transport Police (BTP) data, from November 2018 to October 2021, a total of 100,488 incidents of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) on public transport occurred across England. 4% of which occurred in the West Midlands (4,152), while 0.4% occurred in Coventry (422). A breakdown of this data by year is shown in the attached table.
Further, from March 2020 to October 2021, 51,929 incidents of ASB on public transport occurred across England. 4% of which were in the West Midlands (2,155) and 0.4% were in Coventry (217).
The data provided covers National Rail, London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, Midland Metro Tram, Croydon Tramlink and Glasgow Subway as these are the only transport modes BTP have jurisdiction over. More specific data in regard to Taxis (including Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles) and Trams is not held because this data is not collected. Similarly, no relevant data is held in regard to Buses because this data is collected and held by the Home Office.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) financial and (b) other steps his Department is taking to encourage the uptake of cycling and walking in (i) Coventry North East constituency, (ii) Coventry, (iii) the West Midlands and (iv) England.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department is investing an unprecedented £2 billion in active travel schemes in England over the course of this Parliament. This is the biggest ever boost for cycling and walking. The funding will be spent on a wide range of measures, as set out in the Prime Minister’s July 2020 Gear Change plan.
A total of around £143 million has been invested in cycling and walking schemes in the West Midlands and £4 million in Coventry since the introduction of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) in 2016/17. This includes £22 million active travel funding in the last financial year.
In the coming weeks the Department will invite all Combined and Local Transport Authorities to bid for Active Travel Capital Funding and announce allocations of revenue funding allocations from the Active Travel Capability Fund for the current financial year.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of anti-social behaviour on public transport in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed to reducing crime, anti-social behaviour and the fear of crime wherever it occurs in the transport system. The transport industry, local authorities, the police and others are already investing in, and undertaking wide-ranging initiatives to improve the personal security of public transport passengers and staff and to keep our public transport systems as low crime environments.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to ensure future public transport systems in England are (a) efficient, (b) affordable and (c) environmentally friendly.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed to ensuring an efficient, affordable and environmentally friendly public transport system. This is why on 15 March we published a National Bus Strategy which will improve bus services for passengers across England, making them more reliable, environmentally friendly and better co-ordinated with simpler fares. We are also currently preparing the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail to deliver a more efficient, affordable and greener rail network, and a bold and ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan to achieve net zero emissions across all public transport services.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support the introduction and expansion of very light rail transit systems in towns and cities in England.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government has demonstrated a commitment to supporting the light rail sector. Throughout the pandemic, Government has provided almost £200 million of funding support to Light Rail operators in England, outside of London. In addition, through funding packages to cities, the Government has paid for or underwritten significant investments in light rail in recent years. Very Light Rail is still an emerging technology and the Government will continue to work with towns and cities to ensure any business cases focused on very light rail fully reflect the costs and benefits of new mass transit schemes and identify possible funding and financing routes.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of people who travel to work by (a) car, (b) bus and (c) rail in (i) the West Midlands and (ii) Coventry; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the (A) patterns and (B) modes of travel to work in those areas.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The National Travel Survey (NTS) publishes statistics on travel patterns, data for 2020 will be released in Summer 2021, but data for 2019 showed that, in (i) the West Midlands:
(a) 74% travelled to work by car
(b) 5% travelled to work by bus
(c) 4% travelled to work by rail
Data for (ii) Coventry are unavailable from the NTS due to insufficient sample size. For that area, alternative sources of similar information have been made available by the Office for National Statistics on their website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/coronavirusandtraveltowork/june2020
Regional data on (A) patterns and (B) modes of travel to work for the COVID-19 outbreak period are not yet available. However, the Department currently publishes weekly indicators on use of transport by mode nationally on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to reduce transport emissions in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed to going further, faster to tackle climate change, which is why we are developing a bold and ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan to achieve net zero emissions across all modes of transport. This will set out our plans for reducing emissions at local and national level. Tackling emissions at a local level will make an important contribution to the decarbonisation of transport.
In addition to national policies to reduce emissions, government has already provided funding support for measures to reduce emissions across transport locally, including for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, increasing active travel, and supporting low emission buses. Building on previous funding, the Department recently announced that Coventry is – alongside Oxford – one of two areas progressed to Phase 2 of the All Electric Bus Town or City Competition. Subject to a successful business case, Coventry could be awarded up to £50 million to replace its entire bus fleet with electric buses and the infrastructure needed to support them.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of anti-social behaviour incidents on public transport during the covid-19 outbreak in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps his Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour on (i) buses and (ii) trains.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed to reducing crime, anti-social behaviour and the fear of crime wherever it occurs in the transport system. The transport industry, local authorities, the police and others are already investing in, and undertaking wide-ranging initiatives to improve the personal security of public transport passengers and staff and to keep our public transport systems as low crime environments.