Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a purchase subsidy for electric bikes for the accessibility of those bikes.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government has implemented an £8 million national programme to provide opportunities to try electric cycles through short term loans. Active Travel England is also funding local authority-led cycle loan and share schemes.
The Department considered a range of options to increase e-cycling uptake in 2020-21. This concluded that these initiatives were more cost-effective, and better value for taxpayers’ money, than a purchase subsidy.
In addition, the Government already supports affordable access to cycles, including e-cycles, through the Cycle to Work scheme.
Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the uptake of electric bicycles.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government has implemented an £8 million national programme to provide opportunities to try electric cycles through short term loans. Active Travel England is also funding local authority-led cycle loan and share schemes.
The Department considered a range of options to increase e-cycling uptake in 2020-21. This concluded that these initiatives were more cost-effective, and better value for taxpayers’ money, than a purchase subsidy.
In addition, the Government already supports affordable access to cycles, including e-cycles, through the Cycle to Work scheme.
Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the trial of noise cameras on public roads undertaken by his Department from June 2019.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The acoustic camera trial is complete and preliminary indications are that the device can identify individual vehicles in certain circumstances and assign noise levels to them, but further development is needed to improve accuracy.
The technology has the potential to identify excessively noisy vehicles; however, there are still difficulties in measuring noise in an uncontrolled environment to be overcome.
Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) resilience of power supply arrangements to railway signalling centres and (b) provision of back-up power supplies in the event of National Grid failures.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Network Rail, as the infrastructure provider, is best placed to assess power supply resilience.
Network Rail’s signalling power supplies are treated by the National grid as a priority. As such the standard provision for signalling centres on most parts of the network including railway operating centres are classified as part of an essential services distribution board. These are backed up by a fixed diesel generator and an uninterruptible power supply.
Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the causes of signal and power failures on the South West main line between Woking and Eastleigh on 6 December 2016.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Department does not generally make an assessment of the causes of individual operational incidents. Network Rail, as the infrastructure provider, is best placed to do this. I am aware, however, that on this occasion the problems were caused by a failure of the power supply to the signalling centre in Basingstoke that damaged the signalling equipment which had to be repaired and reset.
Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what research has been commissioned by his Department into the number of traffic accidents in which a driver's defective eyesight was a contributory factor; and whether an estimate has been made of how many such accidents were fatal.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The number of reported personal injury road accidents in Great Britain in which the contributory factor “Uncorrected, defective eyesight” was reported can be found in statistical table ras50001. This factor is reported when the driver or rider's poor vision helped bring about the accident. It includes cases when the driver/rider was not wearing glasses when they should, or wearing the wrong glasses.
Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects the invitation to tender to be issued for the franchise currently held by South West trains.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department is finalising the specification for the South Western franchise so that it offers the best possible proposition for passengers. I expect to issue the Invitation to Tender later this month.
Asked by: Flick Drummond (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the funding available for capital projects in the Wessex area during Control Period 6 of the Network Rail plan.
Answered by Claire Perry
The process for defining our priorities for investment in enhancements to the rail network - including in the Wessex area - for the funding period after March 2019 will start over the coming year taking into account the recommendations of the Bowe and Shaw reviews and the re-plan carried out by Sir Peter Hendy.