Asked by: Jonathan Brash (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to publish a long-term strategy for improving driver welfare facilities.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no current plans to publish a national strategy on HGV parking and welfare facilities.
Work is underway in the Department to improve understanding of lorry parking capacity and demand and driver welfare needs, including a national survey of lorry parking. The survey will provide a fresh baseline on the availability of secure lorry parking and HGV driver welfare provision and is scheduled to be published in the autumn.
The survey was last conducted in 2022 and provided the evidence base for the design of the HGV Parking Matched Funding Grant Scheme. Working with industry, this scheme is delivering up to £35.7 million in joint investment to enhance truck stops across England. The scheme is helping to improve driver welfare facilities, lorry parking provision, site security and decarbonisation.
This investment is on top of up to £30 million in investment by National Highways and industry at truck stops and motorway service areas along the strategic road network.
The government is also prioritising improvements to the planning system. Strengthened policy on freight and logistics has been proposed in the recent consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to improve the consideration of freight, including lorry parking, in the planning system.
Asked by: Jonathan Brash (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with the haulage sector on the safety of drivers using overnight facilities.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Department for Transport ministers and officials hold regular discussions with representatives from the logistics and haulage industry to understand the sector’s priorities, including the safety of drivers and overnight facilities.
Recent engagement with the sector includes the Road Haulage Association’s (RHA) parliamentary reception on the 10 February, where I met with industry representatives and heard about their concerns, including the safety of drivers.
I also chaired the Freight Council on the 11 February where industry representatives had the opportunity to raise concerns, including the safety of HGV drivers using overnight facilities.
More recently, on the 25 February I jointly hosted a freight roundtable with the Minister for Policing and Crime, which was attended by haulage sector, trade bodies and police representatives. Both the Minister for Policing and Crime and I heard directly from the sector on their concerns relating to freight crime, including at overnight HGV parking facilities.
Asked by: Jonathan Brash (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve rail services in Hartlepool.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As well as allocating significant investment to reopen Hartlepool platform 3 in June 2024, we are working with train operators to make the best use of the available infrastructure and to improve reliability to deliver the services passengers need.