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 national register of opticians licensed to carry out DVLA eyesight tests.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is responsible for ensuring that all drivers meet the medical standards required for safe driving, including for eyesight. Drivers who notify the DVLA of a medical condition that may affect their eyesight may be asked to have a formal vision test. These tests are conducted by Specsavers on behalf of the DVLA. The current contract for this purpose was awarded to Specsavers in February 2025 following a competitive tender exercise. There are no plans to introduce a national register of opticians licensed to carry out these tests.
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 9 December to Question 96304 on St Albans City Station: CCTV whether bike thefts will be included in the assessment of railway stations with the highest crime levels when prioritising CCTV integration across the network.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has committed £17 million to improve CCTV connectivity on the railway. Network Rail are delivering the project and as they are currently in the start up phase of the project the details you have requested are not yet available.
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 9 December to Question 96304 on St Albans City Station: CCTV, if Network Rail will publish a list of railway stations to be prioritised for CCTV integration.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has committed £17 million to improve CCTV connectivity on the railway. Network Rail are delivering the project and as they are currently in the start up phase of the project the details you have requested are not yet available.
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 hold discussions with Thameslink on taking steps to reduce reliance on rest-day working to operate timetabled passenger rail services.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Department Officials meet regularly with Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) to review performance and reliability, including driver resource considerations. The Department is supporting GTR in the recruitment of nearly 100 additional Thameslink drivers, which will assist in reducing reliance on rest day working.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she provides guidance to Train Operating Companies on the declassification of first class portions of services during periods of high demand.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State for Transport does not issue guidance to train operating companies on the declassification of first-class accommodation during periods of high demand. Decisions on whether to declassify first class accommodation are operational matters for individual train operating companies.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the letter from the Minister of State for Rail to the hon. Member for St Albans of 28 November 2025, reference MC/00054165 whether she has received representations from Govia Thameslink Railway on integrating CCTV at St Albans City station with the new system to facilitate ease of access for authorised police and rail industry personnel.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The rail CCTV connectivity project is in its start-up phase. It is being delivered by Network Rail, who will ensure improved connectivity to British Transport Police (BTP) will be prioritised at the stations with the greatest footfall and greatest crime. GTR already provides the BTP and other police forces with CCTV footage from its trains, stations and body worn cameras across its network, but this project will speed up that process.
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.