Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Transport Champions for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls strategy published in March 2022, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the recommendations of that report.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport is part of the cross-government Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, and is working with the Home Office and Department for Education to deliver the ambitions of the recommendations from our Transport Champions for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has taken steps to introduce mandatory consultation by local authorities on transport projects with women and girls from various cultures, backgrounds and ages following the publication of recommendations from the Transport Champions for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls in March 2022; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
We welcome the ambition of the recommendations from the Transport Champions for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls. In line with their recommendation on national transport planning guidance, the Department for Transport is updating guidance on consultation for local transport schemes as part of its forthcoming Local Transport Plan guidance.
In addition, as part of their Public Sector Equality Duty, when designing transport projects local authorities must consider the needs of people in relation to characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010, including sex, age and race.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has undertaken work to develop a national Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit following the publication of recommendations from the Transport Champions for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls in March 2022; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is committed to ensuring women and girls are safe on the transport network. We welcome the ambition of the recommendations from the Transport Champions for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls and agree that the principle of safe access to transport networks must be embedded in the core objectives of transport policy and its implementation.
Following the Transport Champions' recommendation on national transport planning guidance, the Department for Transport has reviewed existing gender in transport toolkits and is using these to inform improvements to guidance, including the forthcoming Local Transport Plan guidance.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his comments of 7 July 2021 on HGV driver shortages, if he will (a) make a statement on the steps his Department has taken to increase the number of driving tests available, (b) publish figures on the number of HGV driving tests carried out each year since 2016 and (c) publish the geographical distribution of those additional HGV driving tests by region.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is doing it all it can to increase the number of vocational tests available and has put in place a number of measures to do this. These include offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing on public holidays and weekends. This has increased the overall number of vocational test slots made available to around 3,000 per week.
The DVSA will be launching a recruitment campaign to increase the number of HGV examiners. It will also continue its training programme to enable more examiners to conduct vocational tests.
The DVSA publish data for the number of large goods vehicle (LGV) practical driving tests and pass rates for each driving test centre on Gov.uk. DVSA continues to work with the driver training industry to understand demand, respond to geographical peaks.
Additional tests are added to each test centre as the resource becomes available and can vary on a daily basis. The number of tests conducted are published as Official Statistics.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to respond to the letter of 15 June 2020, reference DL6304, from the hon Member for Glasgow East.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department has no record of the correspondence being received. If copy can be provided a response will be prepared as a priority.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to respond to the letter of 30 April 2020 from the hon. Member for Glasgow East, ref DL5648.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As you will understand, the Department is currently dealing with unprecedented volumes of correspondence due to COVID-19. The Department ensures that urgent cases raised by hon. Members are prioritised, and is taking steps to provide substantive responses in as short a time as possible.
All correspondence received from hon. Members is being reviewed and will be responded to as soon as possible.
A response to your letter of 30th April was sent on 11th June.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on which date the property rental contract for the Baillieston Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency test centre in Glasgow East constituency is due to expire.
Answered by George Freeman
The lease at the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) Glasgow Baillieston test centre expired on 14 March 2019. The DVSA still remains at the location under tacit relocation rules, until the landlord serves notice to end the arrangement or renew the lease.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date a Minister in his Department last visited the Baillieston Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency test centre in Glasgow East constituency.
Answered by George Freeman
There is no record of a Minster from this Department visiting the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s Baillieston driving test centre in Glasgow.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) part-time and (b) full-time staff were employed at Baillieston Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency test centre in Glasgow East constituency in each year since 2016.
Answered by George Freeman
The figures below show how many (a) part time and (b) full time staff have been employed at Baillieston driving test centre, by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, in each year since 2016.
| Full time staff | Part time staff |
September 2016 | 5 | 6 |
September 2017 | 8 | 5 |
September 2018 | 7 | 6 |
September 2019 | 5 | 5 |
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish (a) the outcome of all meetings and (b) all call logs between Ministers of his Department and Mr Crispin Odey.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department does not hold any records of any meetings or phone call logs between departmental Ministers and Mr Crispin Odey in the past twelve months.