Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to improve accessibility at Luton station.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Luton is one of the 73 stations announced in April that will benefit from the £300 million Access for All funding available over the next 5 years. The Access for All programme delivers a step free, accessible route into the station and to and between each platform.
Network Rail are working with Luton Borough Council to try to ensure that the Council’s proposals for a wider redevelopment of the station are integrated and allow the Access for All phase of development to commence as soon as possible.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the closure of the Crown post office in Luton on the accessibility to biometric information services for visa or immigration applications.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Customers making immigration applications can no longer use Post Office branches to enrol their biometrics in the majority of cases. Most customers now enrol their biometrics at a UK Visas & Citizenship Application Service (UKVCAS) centre.
The previous service offered by the Post Office was biometric enrolment only, whereas the new UKVCAS service brings together multiple services to make the application process more streamlined.
The UKVCAS service is run by our commercial partner, Sopra Steria Ltd (SSL), who undertook market research to identify service locations; their research included the impact on customer travel time, cost and accessibility. The results of this were that 62% of customers will, on average, have to travel less than 25 miles to visit a core service point, with 78% travelling less than 50 miles.
SSL can also cater for customers who wish to have more flexible, on-demand, mobile application services, for example at university campuses, employers’ offices or individual customers’ homes.
As part of this contract SSL continuously captures and analyses customer feedback and reviews customer demand to ensure there is sufficient capacity. During May and June SSL opened six additional sites: Manchester, Cardiff, Exeter, Leeds, Sheffield and Edinburgh, with the view to open more.
For information on the closest core and enhanced service points to Luton, please see the UKVCAS website at: https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/locations.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the UK meets its ODA obligations in the event that the UK leave the European Union without a deal.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The Department, working with Treasury and other Government departments, is always planning for contingencies to ensure that the UK meets its ODA obligations. The consequences of leaving the European Union without a deal come within this broader contingency planning.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of rail passenger journeys take place (a) wholly and (b) for at least 50 per cent of the journey by distance on electrified sections of the railway network in Great Britain.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Office of Rail and Road publishes data on electrified rail routes in Great Britain. However, this includes routes open to passengers and freight and does not contain a breakdown for passengers only.
The length of network rail operated electrified route in Great Britain was 3,583 miles in 2017-18. This represents 36% of the total mainline railway route.
This data is available at the following link:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/c35e0c28-324f-4168-81b9-be197963f251
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many publicly available charge-points for electric vehicles there were in (a) Luton, (b) Bedfordshire and (c) the East of England in each year since 2010.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government does not have figures on the total number of publicly available electric vehicle chargepoints. Members of the public and businesses are able to install chargepoints without government support, and information on these are not routinely collected. As at 10th July 2019 the private sector charging point platform Zap-map reported that there are 1,607 in the East of England. Figures for Luton and Bedfordshire are not currently available.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria his Department uses to determine the locations in the UK where biometric information for visa or immigration applications can be provided.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The majority of customers will be able to submit their biometrics and supporting information for their visa application via a UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service (UK VCAS) centre, which are run by Sopra Steria Ltd (SSL) on behalf of UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI). However, Individuals who have higher needs, may be vulnerable, or whose circumstances may be complex and would benefit from face to face interaction with the Home Office are directed to Service and Support Centres (SSC) where they will receive support with their application. The SSCs are all based in pre-existing locations which were previously used as premium service centres, which broadly align with the postal districts of our customers.
There are currently six core UKVCAS service points and seven core SSC’s across the UK at which application submission services are offered. The SSCs are based in Belfast, Cardiff, Croydon, Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield and Solihull.
SSL undertook market research to identify initial service locations for the UKVCAS service points; their research included the impact on customer travel time, cost and accessibility. Beyond that, SSL offer a range of enhanced services in a further 50 UKVCAS locations. These services enable customers to submit their biometric information (photo and fingerprints) and supporting evidence in one location. 62% of customers will, on average, have to travel less than 25 miles to visit a core service centre, with 78% travelling less than 50 miles. Appointments may be offered for individual customers and/or family groups to enrol their biometrics together.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department plans to provide to UK nationals accused of (a) driving offences and (b) exceeding the speed limit when driving their UK-registered vehicle in the EU in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Chris Grayling
All UK nationals must be aware and obey the local traffic laws of the country they are in when driving abroad. Information is available on www.gov.uk which we would urge drivers to read before they travel. If unsure, drivers can also refer to other sites or seek information from recognised driving associations or automobile clubs. The need to be aware and abide with the laws of another country is unaffected by any arrangements to leave the EU.
The Government does not currently provide legal support or advice to UK nationals accused of a traffic offence abroad and there are no plans to provide legal support or advice in the future.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure a greater number of northbound East Midlands Railway trains stop at (a) Luton and (b) Luton Airport Parkway stations under the new franchise.
Answered by Andrew Jones
As detailed in the East Midlands franchise announcement on 10 April, a new express service will operate between London and Corby. This will provide two trains per hour northbound calling at Luton Airport, Luton, Bedford, Wellingborough and Kettering. The current East Midlands timetable provides one direct train per hour northbound to both Luton and Luton Airport.These modern express trains will also deliver more seats for the passengers on this route.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2019 to Question 268457 on European Parliament: elections, whether the Government received such legal advice after 23 May 2019.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Ministers regularly receive legal advice on a variety of topics to aid the decision making process.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions his Department has had with East Midlands Trains on northbound services that fail to stop at (a) Luton and (b) Luton Airport Parkway under the existing timetable.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Trains continue to call at Luton Airport Parkway in the peaks. The Department attends monthly Industry forums which discuss the future timetable development of passengers services on the Midlands Main Line, and the expected reinstatement of East Midlands peak service calls at Luton and Bedford.