Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking under GBR to increase cross border rail connections, such as the Wrexham-Shropshire-Midlands Railway.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department intends to bring section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 into force.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to addressing the longstanding issues with private sewerage. Government recognises that current arrangements of sewer adoption need review.
We have recently consulted on the adoption of shared amenities, including SuDS and sewers, and are now considering next steps. As part of this, we will consider whether section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 should be brought into force.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, of the £21 billion of new local transport funding announced across the Comprehensive Spending Review period, how much funding is allocated to (a) Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, (b) Mayoral Strategic Authorities, and (c) local councils not within a combined authority.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities will receive c£7.7bn of transport funding through their integrated settlement over the Spending Review period from 2026/27 to 2029/30 (to 2028/29 for Resource Funding).
Mayoral Strategic Authorities with a mayor in place will receive c£4bn of transport funding through the Mayoral Transport Fund over the same period.
All other local transport authorities will receive c£9.6bn of local transport funding over the Spending Review period, via the Integrated Transport Fund and Bus Services Fund. This includes c£1.2bn for Foundation Strategic Authorities (combined authorities without an elected mayor) and c£2.9bn for local authorities that are part of the Devolution Priority Programme and are due to be established as Mayoral Transport Authorities.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how competition regulations on state aid are applied by the Office of Rail and Road when assessing applications for Open Access rail services; and what changes are expected following the ORR's move into her Department.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Under the current framework, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is responsible for making access decisions in line with its statutory duties. Moving forward, this will change as Great British Railways takes over responsibility for managing access to the network and ORR takes on a new role to hold GBR to account and ensure fairness and transparency for all operators. ORR will not, however, become part of the Department for Transport – it will remain independent.
All public bodies, including ORR and the future GBR, are obliged to comply with subsidy control and competition legislation across all of their activities, and this will remain the case.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which English counties do not have a direct train link to London; and whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the lack of such links on those counties.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The only English county that does not have a direct train service from London is Shropshire.
The department requires its operators to plan services and rail timetables that are designed to meet expected passenger demand and provide value for money for the taxpayer. Looking ahead to GBR, this offers us the opportunity to go further with optimising train services and driving up utilisation. Through GBR’s directing mind function, services and timetables will be developed in a coherent fashion that drives up network performance and improves the journey experience.