Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to promote the (a) recruitment and (b) training of heavy goods vehicle drivers.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We are supporting apprenticeships, including to train lorry drivers. A revised standard will be available from 1 August 2021 attracting £7,000 in apprenticeship levy funding. There is also an incentive payment of £3,000 available for new apprentices of any age with an employment start date of 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021.
The Department for Work and Pensions is developing a scheme to train jobseekers in HGV driving. The Flexible Support Fund is available to help the unemployed or those in receipt of Universal Credit renew their Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC).
The Department has provided a grant for the non-profit initiative Road to Logistics to train military service leavers, ex-offenders and the long term unemployed to move into jobs in the logistics sector, including lorry driving.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding he has made available to increase capacity at heavy goods vehicle testing centres to compensate for driving test slots lost during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Driver testing has restarted and the DVSA is conducting around 3,000 vocational tests per week. DVSA is increasing the number of tests available through extended operating hours and ensuring all staff who can conduct a driving test are doing so.
DVSA continue to work with the driver training industry to understand demand, respond to geographical peaks and identify issues in booking tests. DVSA has recruited 300 new car examiners which will ease the demand on examiners who are able to conduct vocational tests. They are also looking at other options for increasing vocational resource.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has allocated to (a) young drivers’ awareness programmes and (b) safety campaigns in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Road awareness education and safety campaigns are crucial to improving safety for all road user groups. Between 2010 and 2017, our campaigns targeted a wider audience of road users, including young drivers.
Since 2017 Departmental spend has been primarily focused on young driver road safety campaigns. In order to have the greatest impact, THINK! Campaign activity focuses on those at greatest risk: male drivers aged 17-24.
To that end, since 2010, the Department has invested £47.9 million into awareness programmes and safety campaigns.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve road safety awareness among (a) young and (b) all drivers.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department’s THINK! campaigns play a vital role in reducing deaths and serious injuries on the road by changing the attitudes and behaviours that can lead to casualties.
2019 Reported Road Casualties show an 11% decrease in fatalities among 17-24 year olds and a 7% decrease in people of all ages killed in accidents involving a young car driver, compared with the previous year. This decrease comes during a period when THINK! activity has focused on changing risky attitudes and behaviours among this demographic.
The Department also encourages road safety awareness for all road user groups, as outlined in our 2019 Road Safety Statement: A Lifetime of Road Safety. Road safety education begins at school age, with our THINK! Team delivering educational resources for children aged 3-16 years old.
We have also funded educational support for older drivers in recognition that knowledge, experience and skills develop and deteriorate based on age and experience.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on additional financial support for the community coach and minibus sector during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government has announced a range of measures available to support UK businesses, including coach and minibus companies. These measures include the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (furlough) and loan schemes such as the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
On 5 January, the Chancellor announced a further £500 million of locally-administered Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding to support businesses that are not legally required to close, but which are nonetheless experiencing a severe impact on their business due to the national lockdown. Coach and minibus companies could benefit from this funding, and are encouraged to contact their local authority for more information.
The Department for Transport continues to work with transport sector representatives and with other government departments to keep support for transport operators under review.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on airports in (a) the North West and (b) other regions.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The aviation sector is important to the UK economy and the government recognises the challenging times facing the sector as a result of COVID-19. The Government continues to work closely with airports to support them to ensure there is sufficient capacity to protect global travel routes, to continue repatriation and freight, and to maintain vital connectivity.
The aviation sector will be able to draw upon the unprecedented package of measures announced by the Chancellor. We have been clear that if individual companies find themselves in trouble as a result of coronavirus and have exhausted the measures already available to them, then we are prepared to enter discussions with individual companies seeking bespoke support as a last resort. However, any intervention would need to represent value for money for taxpayers.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his July 2019 policy paper entitled Road Safety Statement: a lifetime of road safety, whether it is his policy to review the research on road safety performance (a) indicators and (b) targets.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Department has commissioned research on road safety performance indicators and targets to establish if there is any evidence to support their effectiveness in road safety improvements.? The research report is due later this year.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Road safety statement 2019: a lifetime of road safety, published in July 2019, what progress his Department has made on the review on roads policing.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Good progress is being made on the review on roads policing, including on the inspection of roads policing and a Call for Evidence to run alongside that inspection.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) have completed their thematic review of roads policing in seven police forces and will be issuing a publicly available report in due course.
The Department will be publishing the Call for Evidence shortly.
Consideration will then be given to the responses and we would expect to produce the final report on roads policing once all the evidence has been considered.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help local authorities take effective enforcement action against taxis and private hire vehicles licensed in different boroughs.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
We are aware of a number of authorities that use their existing powers to require the drivers they licence to cooperate with requests from authorised compliance and enforcement officers in other areas.
Authorities are able to co-authorise compliance and enforcement officers, extending their powers to take action against all licensees licensed by authorities in the agreement.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department's timescale is for responding to the Taxi and private hire vehicle licensing: protecting users consultation published on 12 February 2019.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
We will shortly be issuing Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Standards to licensing authorities on protecting passengers.