Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2026 to Question 21972 on Large Goods Vehicles: Licensing, what specific reforms to (a) operator licensing requirements and (b) associated regulatory processes her Department is considering; and which road freight industry representative bodies it has consulted on those potential reforms.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I refer to my answer of 8 September 2026 to Question 21972.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to support the professional residential property trading sector to play a greater role in facilitating faster, more reliable housing transactions and improve housing market mobility.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Government is reforming the home buying and selling system to cut costs and stop sales falling through. We are delivering a once in a generation set of reforms, bringing benefits to families, property professionals, the housing market and wider economy
On 19 June, we published a roadmap setting out actions government is taking over the course of this Parliament to reform the home buying and selling process. We anticipate the measures included in this roadmap will halve the number of sales that fall through.
These changes will cut homebuying times by around four weeks, saving first-time buyers an average of £650. Overall, first time buyers are set to save a total of more than £200m a year.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2026 to Question 8116, whether the modelling work cited has now been completed, and if she will publish the modelling in full.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The additional modelling work has now been completed. Colleagues from Network Rail, the Mining Remediation Authority and the Environment Agency have discussed the findings to agree a preferred option to address the pollution issue in Whitehaven Harbour. This has been communicated to local stakeholders.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2026 to Question 17031 on Government Departments: Aviation, if he will list each of the 32 occasions on which an aircraft was commissioned for foreign travel since July 2024, including the (a) date, (b) destination, (c) purpose of the journey and (d) cost to the public purse.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 September 2026 to Question UIN 26999.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of revoking the Traffic Distribution Rules 1991 on (a) passenger services, (b) dedicated air freight services and (c) regional airports serving the London air freight market.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is currently undertaking its review of the 1991 Traffic Distribution Rules (TDR) after consulting stakeholders more widely. Once the review has concluded and the CAA has provided its advice, the government will give this careful consideration before determining next steps.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the level of net Government support to the rail sector per passenger journey in September 2026.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not routinely publish estimates of net government support to the rail sector per passenger journey for individual months. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes annual statistics on government support to the rail industry and passenger journeys. These can be found here:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/finance/rail-industry-finance/.
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/passenger-rail-usage/.
Rail industry finance figures for 2025-26 will be released in November by the ORR but will not include September 2026 as this falls in the 2026-27 financial year.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 August 2026 to Question 18207 on Railway Stations: Biometrics, what offences were the 13 individuals arrested for; at which railway station did each arrest take place; and in what way was each arrest linked to the deployment of live facial recognition technology.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The British Transport Police have informed us that this information is not readily accessible within the timeframe for parliamentary questions. I have asked the Rail Minister to write to you with the data requested when it is available.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2026 to Question 17404 on British Transport Police: Railway Stations, how many full-time equivalent British Transport Police officers were assigned to each of the 20 major rail interchange stations listed in that Answer in each year from 2022-23 to 2026-27.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The British Transport Police (BTP) are operationally independent and decisions on the total numbers of officers at locations on the railway is a decision for senior officers within BTP. The BTP are not able to provide the specific breakdown of officer numbers at individual stations for operational security reasons.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2026 to Question 18158 on Road Traffic, whether her Department or National Highways holds estimates of (a) total hours of delay and (b) the economic cost of delay attributable specifically to incidents on the strategic road network in each of the last five years.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Neither the Department for Transport nor National Highways has produced assured estimates of total hours of delay specifically attributable to incidents.
An estimate of the economic cost of delay on the strategic road network, for all causes of delay, can be found at: https://nationalhighways.co.uk/media/nixpb1ed/managing-delay-on-the-strategic-road-network.pdf
National Highways is in the process of developing updated, suitable estimates, and more broadly continues to improve the data and understanding of delay across the strategic road network and regularly publishes information in this area.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 August 2026 to Question 18371 on Trains: Crimes of Violence, how many knife-enabled crimes were recorded by the British Transport Police as having occurred on board trains in each of the five years for which it holds readily extractable, comparable data.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The British Transport Police have provided the following data which shows the number of recorded knife-enabled crimes occurring on board trains in each of the last five years:
Year | On Train |
2021-2022 | 320 |
2022-2023 | 283 |
2023-2024 | 328 |
2024-2025 | 290 |
2025-2026 | 265 |
Total | 1486 |