Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will bring forward the statutory review of the Jet Zero strategy.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government is committed to delivering greener transport as part of its missions to kickstart economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower.
We are progressing a range of measures to support the decarbonisation of the aviation sector at pace. The Government has introduced the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Mandate and the SAF Bill to provide revenue certainty for UK SAF producers, is delivering airspace modernisation, which will see cleaner, quicker and quieter journeys, and is providing funding to support the develop of low and zero emission aerospace technologies.
While there are no statutory obligations for the Government to review the Jet Zero Strategy, we continue to keep our approach to support the decarbonisation of aviation under review.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to increase the availability of driving tests in St Albans.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times.
On the 23 April, the Secretary of State for Transport appeared before the Transport Select Committee and announced that DVSA will take further actions to reduce waiting times for all customers across Great Britain.
These actions include incentivised additional testing offers for driving examiners, doubling permanent training capacity for new driving examiners, and a call for volunteers from those currently in other roles (but qualified to examine) to carry out practical driving tests.
DVSA is continuing with recruitment campaigns across the country to provide as many tests as possible. Since July last year, DVSA has recruited and trained 290 driving examiners (DE) who are now in post and delivering driving tests.
St Albans driving test centre is part of a cluster of test centres, including Stevenage.
A new entrant examiner has recently passed their training course and is now testing full time and conducting driving tests at both St Albans and Stevenage driving test centres. A further new entrant examiner is in their final week of training, if successful they will begin conducting tests at St Albans and Stevenage from 3 November 2025. DVSA has also made offers to one further new entrant examiner, DVSA will arrange their training course as soon as they have accepted.
On 28 May, DVSA launched a public consultation on improving the rules for booking car driving tests. The consultation closed on 23 July. DVSA will review the feedback given and announce next steps as soon as possible. Further information on the consultation can be found at:
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when her Department plans to publish the (a) findings of and (b) next steps from its consultation entitled Improving car driving test booking rules, published on 28 May 2025.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times.
On the 23 April, the Secretary of State for Transport appeared before the Transport Select Committee and announced that DVSA will take further actions to reduce waiting times for all customers across Great Britain.
These actions include incentivised additional testing offers for driving examiners, doubling permanent training capacity for new driving examiners, and a call for volunteers from those currently in other roles (but qualified to examine) to carry out practical driving tests.
DVSA is continuing with recruitment campaigns across the country to provide as many tests as possible. Since July last year, DVSA has recruited and trained 290 driving examiners (DE) who are now in post and delivering driving tests.
St Albans driving test centre is part of a cluster of test centres, including Stevenage.
A new entrant examiner has recently passed their training course and is now testing full time and conducting driving tests at both St Albans and Stevenage driving test centres. A further new entrant examiner is in their final week of training, if successful they will begin conducting tests at St Albans and Stevenage from 3 November 2025. DVSA has also made offers to one further new entrant examiner, DVSA will arrange their training course as soon as they have accepted.
On 28 May, DVSA launched a public consultation on improving the rules for booking car driving tests. The consultation closed on 23 July. DVSA will review the feedback given and announce next steps as soon as possible. Further information on the consultation can be found at:
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make it her policy to set National Highways key performance indicators for cleaning up litter.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government intends to set National Highways a performance indicator (PI) for cleaning up litter on their roads as part of a wide range of performance indicators for the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) period, covering the years 2026/27 to 2030/31. RIS3 will be published in March 2026.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her department has instructed Thameslink to recruit more train drivers since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Since July 2024, the Department has continued to press Govia Thameslink Railway to deliver its on-going train driver recruitment programme which will increase Thameslink drivers by nearly 100 (circa 8 per cent). Training new drivers typically takes around 18 months. There are over 30 new drivers set to qualify this year.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she has considered the potential merits of applying the Direct Vision Standard regulations for HGV drivers nationwide.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Vehicle construction regulations are generally set at an international level in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and the UK played an active role in the development of regulation 167 on direct vision. This regulation is included in the European Union’s General Safety Regulation (GSR). Following external analysis of the specific benefits and costs of the GSR measures, the Government is exploring options for updates to our national type approval legislation to mandate fitment of these safety technologies and vehicle design features in Great Britain.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a minimum age requirement for children to travel on a motorbike as a pillion passenger.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The department has not made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a minimum age requirement for children to travel on a motorbike as a pillion passenger. The decision to carry a child passenger on a motorcycle remains with the rider, who is legally responsible for ensuring that the child is safely supported.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has had recent discussions with Network Rail on the potential merits of (a) reducing and (b) eliminating the use of glyphosate herbicides on railway property.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail uses glyphosate to control the growth of vegetation in places where it may cause problems for trains or colleagues working alongside the track. This helps to maintain the safe operation of the railway and avoid key parts of the railway being covered by vegetation. Network Rail has been reducing the amount of chemicals it uses on the network over the last couple of decades. Applications are targeted at the plants to ensure that the volume used is as low as possible. There is not currently a chemical alternative to glyphosate that gives Network Rail the same control of vegetation. Non-chemical approaches are available and used by Network Rail in other locations, but they are not viable for use on the operational railway.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has considered the potential merits of conducting a review into the Transport for London zoning of (a) Watford Junction, (b) Watford High Street, (c) Bushey railway station and (d) Watford Underground station.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London and Transport for London, and it is for them to make decisions regarding the zoning of their services.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 April 2025 to Question 44558 on Luton Airport, whether her Department sought legal advice on the compatibility of its decision to expand Luton Airport with commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Answered by Mike Kane
The full reasons for the Secretary of State’s decision on 3 April 2025 to grant consent to the London Luton Airport Expansion scheme are set out in her decision letter which is published on the Planning Inspectorate’s website. As an application has been made for judicial review of the decision and the matter is a live litigation case, unfortunately I am unable to provide any further comment.