Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that care leavers aged between 18 and 25 can access affordable public transport; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the English National Travel Concession Scheme to care leavers.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This government recognises the importance of supporting care leavers, and is keeping public transport affordable having announced a new £3 cap on single bus fares in England outside London throughout the entirety of 2025.
Any change to the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) would require careful consideration for its impact on the scheme’s financial sustainability. However, local authorities in England have implemented a wide range of their own local fares initiatives, including some discount schemes for care leavers, utilising alternative funding, such as Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding. On 17 November, the government confirmed £712 million funding for local authorities in 2025/26 to deliver their BSIPs and protect services, as part of an over £1 billion investment in buses confirmed at the Budget.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Access for All programme; whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of reinstating that programme.
Answered by Huw Merriman
The Department continues to support and fund the Access for All programme. Since its inception in 2006, the programme has installed around £900m worth of accessible, step free routes at over 200 stations plus a range of smaller scale access improvements at around 1500 stations, across Britain. We are currently assessing over 300 station nominations in anticipation of a further round of funding beyond 2024.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help improve (a) the timeliness of notification to airports by airlines and travel agents of passengers requiring assistance and (b) accessibility at airports.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government works closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK’s specialist aviation regulator, who are responsible for enforcing consumer laws, including Regulation 1107/2006 (as retained in UK law). This sets out the requirements for capturing and sharing information on assistance requests.
The CAA collect annual data on airport accessibility services, including pre-notification by airports and airlines, and will take enforcement action against individual carriers as required.
The CAA recently published an interim report on the performance of airports against its accessibility framework. The report highlighted airports requiring further improvement, and airports performing well.
The CAA will continue to monitor and work with airports to implement improvements and publish its usual annual report later this year. In addition, it will soon publish a consultation on airline accessibility which will include guidance on airlines’ obligations regarding pre-notification, amongst other requirements, and seek to assess airlines against publicly available criteria.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of passengers requiring assistance pre-notified to airports by airlines and travel agents.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government works closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK’s specialist aviation regulator, who are responsible for enforcing consumer laws, including Regulation 1107/2006 (as retained in UK law). This sets out the requirements for capturing and sharing information on assistance requests.
The CAA collect annual data on airport accessibility services, including pre-notification by airports and airlines, and will take enforcement action against individual carriers as required.
The CAA recently published an interim report on the performance of airports against its accessibility framework. The report highlighted airports requiring further improvement, and airports performing well.
The CAA will continue to monitor and work with airports to implement improvements and publish its usual annual report later this year. In addition, it will soon publish a consultation on airline accessibility which will include guidance on airlines’ obligations regarding pre-notification, amongst other requirements, and seek to assess airlines against publicly available criteria.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate has she made of the savings to the public purse caused by reduction in GTR services in London coach numbers and frequency made in 2022.
Answered by Huw Merriman
The changes that Govia Thameslink Railway implemented in 2022 increased the number of services that ran. Therefore there were no associated cost savings.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to model the impact of service reductions from GTR; and what modelling his Department has received from GTR on the planned service reductions.
Answered by Huw Merriman
GTR have been working at pace to respond to changing passenger travel patterns since the pandemic. Their train service is regularly reviewed to ensure it provides sufficient capacity to meet passenger demand whilst delivering good value for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of (a) passenger numbers during (i) peak and (ii) off-peak hours on Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) services in London and (b) fare revenue collected by GTR for those services in the most recent period for which data are available.
Answered by Huw Merriman
For the most recent rail period, the number of weekday journeys on GTR totalled 76 per cent of pre pandemic levels whilst weekend journeys were 86 per cent. Peak travel has recovered much more slowly than off peak. Overall revenue for GTR reached 76 per cent compared to 2019 levels.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date in 2021 her Department approved the payment of a £30,000,000 dividend by London and Southeastern Railways Ltd under the terms of its Emergency Measures Agreement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
London and South Eastern Railway Limited (LSER) were within the contractual financial ratios and the Department was not required to give approval to allow it to make the dividend payment.
The dividend payment was therefore a matter for LSER and its owning group.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to Answer of 14 September 2022 to Question 45030 on Railways: Greater London, what recent discussions her Department has had with Govia Thameslink on reductions in service.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Department meets regularly with Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and will continue to carefully monitor implementation of GTR’s recent and future timetable alterations as well as changes in demand to identify where further interventions in service level provision may be required.
GTR are making evidence-based timetable interventions to better optimise service levels to balance capacity and demand.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to Answer of 14 September 2022 to Question 45030 on Railways: Greater London, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the potential impact of reductions in rail (a) services and (b) capacity on the use of private vehicles in London.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are not monitoring the impact of changes in rail services on car usage, however, we are focussed on ensuring Govia Thameslink Railway are making evidence-based timetable interventions to better optimise service levels to balance capacity and demand.