Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on families of increases in Air Passenger Duty for Premium Economy passengers announced in the Budget.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to securing the long-term future of the aviation sector in the UK and recognises the benefits of the connectivity it creates between the UK and the rest of the world.
At Budget 2025, the government announced it will uprate APD rates in line with RPI from 1 April 2027 and rounded to the nearest penny. This constitutes a real terms freeze meaning passengers will pay the same in today’s prices.
As set out in the OBR forecast in March, passenger numbers are expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in the coming year, and are expected to be around 10% higher than 2024-25 once new APD rates are implemented in 2026-27.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of increased aviation taxes on levels of inbound tourism to the UK.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to securing the long-term future of the aviation sector in the UK and recognises the benefits of the connectivity it creates between the UK and the rest of the world.
At Budget 2025, the government announced it will uprate APD rates in line with RPI from 1 April 2027 and rounded to the nearest penny. This constitutes a real terms freeze meaning passengers will pay the same in today’s prices.
As set out in the OBR forecast in March, passenger numbers are expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in the coming year, and are expected to be around 10% higher than 2024-25 once new APD rates are implemented in 2026-27.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of public electric vehicle charge points were out of service in (a) November 2025 and (b) each month since July 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not hold this information.
The Government is committed to ensuring public charging is reliable, and it is vital that consumers can charge hassle-free. From November 2024, the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 have required operators to achieve an average reliability of 99% across their network of chargepoints of 50 kW and above.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average processing time was for driving licence applications in (a) November 2025 and (b) each month since July 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The tables below show the average number of working days taken to process driving licence applications made both online and not online for both group 1 (cars and motorcycle) and group 2 (lorry and bus) licences.
| Group 1 | Group 2 | ||
Date | Online applications | Non- online applications | Online applications | Non-online applications |
Jul 2024 | 1.16 | 5.34 | 1.00 | 2.91 |
Aug 2024 | 1.22 | 5.50 | 1.00 | 2.16 |
Sept 2024 | 1.22 | 5.45 | 1.01 | 1.88 |
Oct 2024 | 1.20 | 4.84 | 1.06 | 1.71 |
Nov 2024 | 1.19 | 4.11 | 1.00 | 1.69 |
Dec 2024 | 1.21 | 2.87 | 1.05 | 1.80 |
Jan 2025 | 1.21 | 3.51 | 1.00 | 2.39 |
Feb 2025 | 1.21 | 4.08 | 1.00 | 1.64 |
Mar 2025 | 1.20 | 4.18 | 1.00 | 1.56 |
Apr 2025 | 1.18 | 4.09 | 1.04 | 1.71 |
May 2025 | 1.20 | 4.75 | 1.00 | 2.67 |
Jun 2025 | 1.27 | 5.77 | 1.01 | 2.82 |
Jul 2025 | 1.23 | 5.26 | 1.00 | 2.30 |
Aug 2025 | 1.23 | 5.06 | 1.00 | 2.93 |
Sept 2025 | 1.23 | 4.78 | 1.00 | 3.37 |
Oct 2025 | 1.36 | 5.28 | 1.00 | 2.58 |
Nov 2025 | 1.34 | 4.24 | 1.00 | 2.26 |
Driving licence applications where a medical condition(s) must be investigated before a licence can be issued can take longer as the DVLA is often reliant on information from third parties, including medical professionals, before a licence can be issued.
The DVLA is currently rolling out a new casework system which is expected to deliver significant improvements to the services provided to drivers with medical conditions. When fully implemented, this will provide improved turnaround times, increased capacity, increased automation, higher levels of digital functionality and increased digital communication. The DVLA is also planning to launch a new medical services platform which will enable more customers to transact online and will increase the use of email communication.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average queue time at passport control was at UK airports in (a) November 2025 and (b) each month since July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The specific data requested is not available in an accessible format but below are the relevant statistics taken from Border Force’s transparency data.
Of the 897,695 queue samples measured across the UK in 2025, 97.9% of queues were within Border Force’s service standards above the 95% target. These service standards are 25 mins EU/EEA and 45 mins non-EU/EEA.
For further transparency data, including 2024, please refer to the below GOV.UK link.
Migration transparency data - GOV.UK