Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the answer of 27 April 2026 to Question 127540 on Network Rail: Public Relations, whether the (a) Office of Rail and Road, (b) Great British Railways and (c) DFT Operator hires external (i) public relations and (ii) public affairs support.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is an independent regulator and decisions about the use of external support is a matter for its Board.
ORR uses external support where necessary to supplement internal capability and ensure effective delivery of its statutory functions. This has included the use of external expertise in public affairs where additional specialist support or capacity has been required. ORR has not used external public relations support. The Board keeps the use of external support under review to ensure it provides appropriate value for money, follows civil service procurement rules, and aligns with ORR’s priorities.
DFT Operator does not hire PR or Public Affairs firms.
Great British Railways does not yet exist.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 24 March 2026 to Question 120876, for each Northern Trains route in each of the last 18 months, how many services were operated with fewer carriages than planned; and what percentage of services on each route that represented.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DFT Operator expects operators to provide appropriate capacity in response to expected demand and holds operators to account for short -formed services. While DFT Operator generally monitors levels of short formation at an operator level every four weeks, more detailed route information is available for Northern services due to specific challenges concerning the age of its fleet. These are set out below:
|
|
|
|
Route | number of trains with fewer carriages |
|
|
Southport - Stalybridge | 4709 |
| 23.5% |
Skipton - Leeds | 4588 |
| 13.1% |
Leeds - Harrogate - York | 4311 |
| 11.7% |
Leeds - Manchester Victoria | 4271 |
| 21.4% |
Manchester Piccadilly - New Mills Central | 4262 |
| 24.4% |
Blackpool North - Manchester Airport (express) via Bolton | 4121 |
| 12.5% |
Blackburn - Wigan/Headbolt Lane | 4087 |
| 22.2% |
Liverpool - Oxford Rd via Warrington (stoppers) | 3504 |
| 13.4% |
Manchester Victoria - Clitheroe via Bolton | 3494 |
| 21.7% |
Leeds - Chester | 3202 |
| 20.7% |
Southport - Oxford Rd via Bolton | 3046 |
| 22.3% |
Leeds - Ilkley | 2983 |
| 8.3% |
Leeds - Sheffield via Moorthorpe | 2872 |
| 13.0% |
Sheffield - Huddersfield | 2829 |
| 17.8% |
Liverpool - Warrington Central | 2095 |
| 18.6% |
Wigan - Leeds | 1962 |
| 12.4% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Buxton | 1939 |
| 5.9% |
Halifax - Hull | 1842 |
| 9.6% |
Leeds/Castleford - Huddersfield via Dewsbury | 1783 |
| 16.3% |
Liverpool - Manchester Airport via Huyton (stoppers) | 1760 |
| 9.7% |
Leeds - Knottingley via Wakefield | 1570 |
| 10.2% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Sheffield | 1488 |
| 8.8% |
Bradford Forster Square - Ilkley | 1359 |
| 5.3% |
Goole - Castleford - Leeds | 1233 |
| 7.1% |
Liverpool - Blackpool North (express) | 1159 |
| 7.5% |
Sheffield - Hull/Scarborough via Doncaster | 1005 |
| 2.8% |
Leeds - Bradford Forster Square | 972 |
| 3.4% |
Blackpool North - York | 924 |
| 5.3% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Crewe via Stockport | 918 |
| 3.2% |
Liverpool - Wigan/Blackpool North (stoppers) | 865 |
| 2.8% |
Bradford Forster Square - Skipton | 821 |
| 3.1% |
Leeds - Barnsley - Sheffield (stoppers) | 809 |
| 3.9% |
Leeds - Garforth - York | 757 |
| 4.8% |
Rochdale - Blackburn | 704 |
| 4.9% |
Doncaster - Leeds | 661 |
| 3.5% |
Manchester Airport - Windermere/Barrow (express) | 643 |
| 4.8% |
Leeds - Lincoln via Sheffield | 592 |
| 3.0% |
Whitby - Middlesbrough | 509 |
| 9.2% |
Leeds - Settle - Carlisle | 471 |
| 5.2% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Chester | 453 |
| 2.6% |
Blackpool South - Preston | 379 |
| 2.4% |
Durham Coast | 372 |
| 1.5% |
Leeds - Nottingham | 368 |
| 2.0% |
York - Hull/Bridlington | 364 |
| 1.8% |
Leeds - Knaresborough | 346 |
| 15.3% |
Newcastle - Carlisle | 285 |
| 0.8% |
Windermere - Oxenholme | 283 |
| 2.5% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Crewe via Manchester Airport | 276 |
| 1.7% |
Wigan - Manchester Victoria via Eccles | 242 |
| 5.7% |
Newcastle - Ashington | 223 |
| 0.8% |
Hull - Scarborough (local Services Beverley Hull) | 216 |
| 2.7% |
Cumbria Coast | 182 |
| 0.7% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Stoke on Trent | 91 |
| 0.6% |
Barrow/Windermere - Preston | 87 |
| 1.4% |
Bradford Interchange - Huddersfield | 84 |
| 0.9% |
Sheffield - Adwick | 64 |
| 0.3% |
Bishop Auckland - Saltburn | 59 |
| 0.2% |
Preston - Colne | 52 |
| 0.3% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Rose Hill Marple | 37 |
| 0.2% |
Lancaster - Morecambe | 17 |
| 0.1% |
Manchester Piccadilly - Hadfield/Glossop | 10 |
| 0.0% |
Sheffield - York | 6 |
| 0.2% |
Saltburn - Chester le Street - Carlisle | 5 |
| 0.3% |
Preston - Ormskirk | 5 |
| 0.0% |
Leeds - Lancaster | 4 |
| 0.1% |
Sheffield - Gainsborough Central | 3 |
| 2.9% |
Rochdale - Ribblehead | 3 |
| 1.1% |
Ellesmere Port - Helsby/Liverpool | 2 |
| 0.1% |
Chathill - Newcastle | 1 |
| 0.1% |
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which UK airports with international flights do not have eGates.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Border Force currently has 293 eGates in operation across ports in the UK; on account of operational sensitivity, we do not disclose the number of eGates at specific ports. To support the further growth of our operational capacity, we are looking to deploy eGates across additional ports over the next five years.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency were (a) in post and (b) delivering practical car driving tests in April 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In April 2026 there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners in post, and out of those, 1,604 were available to deliver practical car driving tests.
The national average waiting time (when a minimum of 10% of test slots are available) for a car practical test was 22.3 weeks in April 2026, with the median waiting time (the time between first test booking and test taken) at 9.1 weeks.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time for a practical car driving test was in April 2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In April 2026 there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners in post, and out of those, 1,604 were available to deliver practical car driving tests.
The national average waiting time (when a minimum of 10% of test slots are available) for a car practical test was 22.3 weeks in April 2026, with the median waiting time (the time between first test booking and test taken) at 9.1 weeks.