Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when she plans to ratify the International Maritime Organisation 2012 Cape Town Agreement on the safety of fishing vessels.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We have been working to ensure that the UK is in a position to accede to the Cape Town Agreement and I can confirm that, subject to Parliamentary Scrutiny, we will instruct the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to conclude accession by Spring 2026.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help support the (a) development and (b) adoption of vehicle to grid technology.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to supporting the rapid development and adoption of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology as it has the potential to reduce the cost of electric vehicle (EV) ownership while supporting the decarbonisation of our energy system.
Whilst the technology is still nascent, it is quickly commercialising. The Government is currently providing industry with over £10m innovation funding support through its V2X Innovation Programme (2022-2025). This is in addition to the funding support of over £28m previously provided through its Vehicle-to-Grid innovation programme (2018-2022).
The Government and Ofgem outlined collective ambitions and further actions relating to Vehicle-to-Grid technology in the Clean Flexibility Roadmap published in July 2025. These include removing financial barriers, such as the double charging of levies on re-exported electricity, as well as improving grid connection processes and enabling technical interoperability for V2X.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of freezing rail fares.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As we reform fares and deliver Great British Railways, we must ensure passengers and taxpayers get a fair deal. Since the pandemic, the amount of taxpayer subsidy provided to the railway industry has increased from under a quarter in 2018/19 to almost half of total income in 2023/24. No decisions have been made on next year’s rail fares, but our aim is that prices balance affordability for both passengers and taxpayers.
In addition, it is a number one priority for this Government to get the railways back to a place where people can rely on them, which is why we are putting passengers at the heart of our plans for public ownership and Great British Railways, delivering the services they deserve and driving growth.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a best price guarantee for rail passengers.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are overhauling the complex fares and ticketing system to make it easier for passengers to trust that they are buying the right ticket and getting the best fare.
We are already making positive changes, including through expanding ticketing innovations such as pay as you go which provides a best price promise for most passengers on the day of travel. The move to Great British Railways will also offer passengers a more consistent fares offer across the network.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of capping long-distance rail fares.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Great British Railways (GBR) will be empowered to deliver industry-wide modernisation and reform of the complex and fragmented fares landscape inherited from privatisation. This will enable GBR to simplify the ticketing system and make it easy for passengers to find the right fare, including on long-distance journeys.
We are also already driving forward improvements in advance of GBR. For example, we are supporting London North Eastern Railway to deliver its ‘Simpler Fares’ trial, which is testing an easier to understand fares structure and demand-based pricing on parts of its long-distance network. The aim is to improve the passenger experience by reducing crowding, making better use of capacity and making travel more comfortable for passengers.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will review the default 60mph speed limit for rural roads.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government treats road safety seriously and is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. The Department for Transport is developing its Road Safety Strategy and measures to address speeding will be considered for inclusion within the strategy. The Government will set more details out in due course.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department has taken to merge highway records into a single digital record to simplify conveyancing highways searches.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department for Transport (DfT) recognises the value of improving access to highways information for the purposes of conveyancing.
For the Strategic Road Network, National Highways has taken significant steps to simplify its own land ownership records. Conveyancing highways searches are received through the National Highways Customer Contact Centre, before being directed to the relevant regional spatial planning team. To further support transparency, National Highways has created a spatial highway boundary dataset, updated weekly using data from HM Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, and its own asset data. This assured dataset is available to the public through the National Highways Open Data Portal and allows users to easily identify National Highways’ land ownership.
For local roads, the records most relevant to conveyancing searches are owned, maintained and published by local highway authorities. At present, DfT has no plans to consolidate this data into a single digital record.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of implementing a scheme equivalent to Fuel Finder for the cost of charging electric vehicles.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is committed to improving the transparency of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure costs. Under the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023, chargepoint operators are required to clearly provide the price of charging at public chargepoints in pence per kilowatt hour (or pound per kilowatt hour).
These regulations also require operators to share open data on charging costs free of charge, among other data fields. Both these measures allow drivers to compare public chargepoint costs and choose the best rate.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to help prevent price differentials for different types of users of EV charging points.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle.
The Government are aware of the cost differential between those who can and cannot install a dedicated EV charger at home and continue to work with Ofgem and others on measures to keep the cost of EV charging affordable for consumers.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee on establishing a crime and policing working group to help tackle disability hate crime on public transport.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Ministers and officials regularly seek advice from the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee on the issues which most affect disabled people when travelling, including disability hate crime. The Department is committed to ensuring everyone, including disabled people, are and feel safe when using the transport network. We have an ambitious, evidence-based programme of work to improve personal safety on transport, working across government and with partners including the British Transport Police. We have just launched a new survey to determine the prevalence of crime and anti-social behaviour on the network which will help us to better understand the scale of the problem, who is affected and when and where these incidents take place. This will enable us to better target policy and activities to tackle these issues and make the transport network safer for everyone.