Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the effectiveness of oversight of taxi licencing.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is responsible for setting the regulatory structure within which 263 licensing authorities in England license the taxi and PHV trades. The Government issues guidance to assist authorities in carrying this out.
The Government has set out the measures it expects licensing authorities to take to safeguard passengers through the publication of the Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards in 2020. The Government has just published updated Best Practice Guidance for licensing authorities in England which encourages proportionate regulation to enable the sector to deliver safe, accessible, and affordable services that meet the differing needs of passengers. The Department for Transport engages regularly with taxi and private hire vehicle licensing authorities on a range of issues regarding the regulation of the sector.
The Government remains committed to introducing legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to enable the setting of national standards in licensing, enhancing licensing authorities’ compliance and enforcement powers and to establish a national licensing database of all licensees.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps with local authorities to ensure that taxi licencing processes support (a) passenger safety and (b) fair competition.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government set out the measures it expects licensing authorities to take to safeguard passengers through the publication of the Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards in 2020. Public safety remains the priority of taxi and private hire vehicle licensing, and the Government is clear that where standards need to be high and rigorously applied, they must be.
The Government has published updated Best Practice Guidance to assist licensing authorities in England. The updated guidance challenges licensing authorities to consider the necessity of some requirements that they place on the trade. This approach will provide a framework for fair competition and enable the trade to deliver the range of safe, available, affordable and accessible services required to meet the range of differing passenger needs.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department's expected timeline is for selling all land previously acquired for Phase 2B of HS2; and who has oversight of this.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Any land and property that is no longer required will be sold, and a programme is being developed to do this. It will take some time to develop this programme, and we will set out further detail on these next steps, and will engage in full with those communities who are affected as we do.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) properties and (b) businesses purchased for Phase 2B of HS2 his Department intends to sell.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Any land and property that is no longer required will be sold, and a programme is being developed to do this. An assessment of the exact numbers of land and property assets that will be sold has yet to be made as some of the assets will be retained for Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department holds data on the number of commercial flight cancellations made per calendar year.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Information on the number of commercial flight cancellations made per calendar year at UK airports is collected and published by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Table 4a of the UK airport data publication provides information on the overall number of cancelled air transport movements by airport:
https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-analysis/uk-aviation-market/airports/uk-airport-data/
The UK flight punctuality statistics publication provides more detailed information on commercial flight cancellations, such as route-level breakdowns, for selected UK airports:
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish data providing a breakdown of the number of rail journey cancellations in England and Wales for each year between 2010 and 2023.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Statistics on the number of trains part and fully cancelled are published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) - Table 3123 - Trains planned and cancellations by operator and cause
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many homes have been subject to compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) as part of the plans for the Eastern leg of HS2; and how much those CPOs have cost.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
HS2 Ltd is yet to deposit a Hybrid Bill for Phase 2b, and therefore has not acquired any properties on that part of the route under Compulsory Purchase powers.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much additional capacity the cancelled HS2 Eastern Leg and Northern Powerhouse Rail plans would have added to the network, by route.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Integrated Rail Plan sets out the capacity improvements that the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) core network from Liverpool to York will deliver. These capacity improvements equal those in previous proposals from Transport for the North, with over a 500% increase on journeys from Liverpool to Leeds alone.
The IRP also confirms that a new HS2 line will be built from Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway, which will deliver more capacity to Nottingham and Derby compared to previous plans, and the same capacity uplift to Chesterfield and Sheffield. Upgrades to the East Coast Main Line will deliver similar or more capacity from London and Birmingham to the North East compared to previous plans, and potentially more capacity to places from London that did receive benefit under previous plans, such as Wakefield, Doncaster, Grantham and Peterborough. Leeds capacity will depend on decisions reached following the development work to assess the most effective way to take HS2 trains to Leeds for which the Government is providing £100m.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much the Government has spent on the HS2 Eastern Leg to date; and if he will publish a breakdown of that spending.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since the Prime Minister announced the Integrated Rail Plan in February 2020, development of the Eastern Leg of HS2 has been paused to avoid nugatory spend whilst the Integrated Rail Plan took this work forward. Safeguarding of the Eastern leg route remains in place pending conclusion of work on the most effective way to serve Leeds and towns and cities along the Eastern Leg. Any property that has been acquired already by the Government but is not required for the eventual route will be resold.