Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an estimate of (a) driver hours lost to traffic delays and (b) carbon dioxide emissions caused by Just Stop Oil protests since February 2022.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
National Highways the Government’s Arm’s Length body that manages the Strategic Road Network has estimated the driver’s hours lost due to protestors as 126,894 hours.
The data for carbon dioxide emissions is currently not available due to complexity in gathering such data.
Illegal protests on our roads put the lives of drivers and road workers at risk, as well as pointlessly interfering with the lives of ordinary people. We will continue to pursue every option available to deter them.
Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department has spent on rail improvements in East Kent in each of the last five years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Transport does not hold investment data in the format requested and this could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, over the last five years, the Government has made significant investment which benefit East Kent. This includes the introduction of several new high speed services (including at Martin Mill station); ongoing work to deliver line speed improvements between Ashford International and Ramsgate and a traction power supply upgrade to facilitate the operation of longer trains. The train operator has committed to making improvements worth more than £70m across the franchise area by 2018.
Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the HGV road user levy.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government published an assessment of the effectiveness of the HGV levy in a written statement on 15 June 2015. The levy was introduced, on time, in April 2014. It raised £192.5m in its first year, with £46.5m of that coming from foreign hauliers. Compliance in Great Britain is high at around 95%, and over 3,000 fixed penalties were issued in the first year.
Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many foreign vehicles that had overstayed the permitted six months in the UK were identified as a result of the information sharing trial between the police service and HM Revenue and Customs that ran from November 2014 to February 2015; how many such vehicles were impounded; how much was raised in fines in that trial; and what plans his Department has to introduce such a scheme permanently.
Answered by Andrew Jones
During the trial the police used a combination of information provided by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and on-road interviews to establish whether a vehicle had overstayed the six-month exemption and/or if the vehicle keeper was a resident in the UK.
Of the 703 vehicles impounded during the trial, 162 were included in the HMRC’s data set.
The table below shows the amounts awarded by the courts following successful prosecutions:
Fines | Costs awarded to the DVLA | Back Duty paid |
£40,259 | £12,540 | £12,215.10 |
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) also received £20,751 from out of court settlement payments.
The trial was carried out from within existing resources.
A full analysis of the trial is underway and will inform the way forward. Police forces which are authorised by the DVLA to seize unlicensed vehicles continue to target non-compliant foreign registered vehicles.