Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to improve infrastructure for electric vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is working with industry to improve electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure. There are now over 42,000 public chargepoints, alongside hundreds of thousands in homes and workplaces. The Government estimates that by 2030, around 300,000 public chargepoints will be needed as a minimum. The Government expects to see a market-led roll-out for the majority of chargepoints with over £6 billion of investment already committed.
The Government’s funding interventions are focused on two sectors: high powered chargers on the strategic road network through the Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) and local on-street charging through the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund (LEVI).
The LEVI fund will support local authorities to work with industry to transform the availability of charging infrastructure for drivers without off-street parking. The Government has announced a further £381 million of LEVI funding (£343 million capital and £37.8 million resource), which will be made available over the next two financial years. The RCF will future-proof the electrical capacity at strategic locations to support ultra-rapid en-route charging.
The Government is also working to improve the experience of people using public chargepoints. In the coming months, the Government will regulate to mandate open data to ensure consumers can locate the right chargepoints for their needs, mandate 99 per cent reliability across each rapid charging network and will aim to introduce contactless payment provision for all new chargepoints over 8kW
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what percentage of the Government car fleet is ultra-low emission vehicles.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
38% of the operational fleet of the Government Car Service are classed as Ultra Low Emission vehicles (ULEV).
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the progress of trial schemes for e-scooters; and what plans he has to introduce legislation on e-scooters before those trials expire in 2024.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Rental e-scooter trials were launched in July 2020 across England. The Department for Transport commissioned an independent evaluation of the e-scooter trials, covering data up to December 2021. The evaluation examines how and why rental e-scooters are used, and by whom, as well as safety, mode shift, environmental and wider social impacts.
The Department published the findings report of the national evaluation of e-scooter rental trials in England on 15 December 2022.
The findings have already been used to inform updates in guidance and regulation of the e-scooter trials and will continue to be used to inform policy development. These include:
mandatory unique identification numbers for all rental e-scooters, to allow members of the public to differentiate trial from non-trial e-scooters; and
increased guidance and encouragement for operators to provide helmets and incentivise their use.
The Government plans to introduce legislation for private and rental e-scooter use when parliamentary time allows and will consult on regulations in due course.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what lessons his Department has learned from e-scooter trials launched in 2020; and if he will take steps to introduce e-scooter legislation by 31 May 2024.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Rental e-scooter trials were launched in July 2020 across England. The Department for Transport commissioned an independent evaluation of the e-scooter trials, covering data up to December 2021. The evaluation examines how and why rental e-scooters are used, and by whom, as well as safety, mode shift, environmental and wider social impacts.
The Department published the findings report of the national evaluation of e-scooter rental trials in England on 15 December 2022.
The findings have already been used to inform updates in guidance and regulation of the e-scooter trials and will continue to be used to inform policy development. These include:
The Government plans to introduce legislation for private and rental e-scooter use when parliamentary time allows and will consult on regulations in due course.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding has been provided for active travel schemes from (a) City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, (b) the Levelling Up Fund, (c) the Future High Streets Fund, (d) the Towns Fund and (e) National Highways Designated Funds since the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2) estimates that over £3 billion of investment will be invested in active travel between 2021/22 to 2024/5. This includes estimates for City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) (£700m), Levelling Up Fund (£576m), Future High Streets Fund (£289m), Towns Fund (£293m) and National Highways Designated Funds (£90m). An update on estimates across all funds included within CWIS2 will be published in the next CWIS Report to Parliament.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Sustrans report on Helping people through the cost of living crisis and growing our economy: The role of walking, wheeling and cycling, published in October 2022, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of implementing the recommendation for a dedicated pavement fund to improve accessibility and quality.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is investing more than £5.5 billion between 2020 and 2025 into local highways maintenance; this funding covers all aspects of the highway, including footways. The Government believes local councils are best placed to allocate this money in their areas.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to (a) ensure the effective regulation of headlight brightness and (b) address the issue of dangerous headlight glare on vehicles.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Prior to registration vehicle manufacturers must supply evidence that their vehicles comply with international road vehicle approval requirements. Provisions for vehicle headlamps define maximum and minimum intensity, light pattern and position on the vehicle. Domestic legislation also prohibits the use of headlamps that cause undue dazzle or discomfort for other road users.
The Department’s engineers are involved in ongoing international activity at the United Nations and proposals to amend headlamp aiming criteria are expected to be agreed this month, together with requirements for mandatory automatic headlamp levelling.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an estimate of the potential level of subsidy that may be required for non-profitable bus services in the West of England Combined Authority area.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department for Transport has provided over £2 billion in emergency and recovery funding since March 2020 to support bus services and mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) have received over £8 million of this funding. This support is set to continue until 30 June, and Department is actively working on plans to support the sector from July onwards and will make a further announcement on this in due course. The Department continues to discuss the scale of the challenge with representatives from local authorities and from bus operators.
The Government also provides WECA with £1.1 million annually through the Bus Service Operator Grant (BSOG), which is provided directly to Local Authorities to subsidise socially necessary bus services.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate his Department has made of the funding required to double cycling activity from 0.8 billion cycle stages in 2013 to 1.6 billion cycle stages in 2025.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The amount of funding required depends on a wide variety of factors including the uncertainty over the long-term impact of the pandemic on cycling activity. A total of around £3 billion of Government funding is projected to be invested in cycling and walking up to 2025.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish a response to the consultation entitled Managing pavement parking, published on 31 August 2020.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department consulted on measures to address inconsiderate pavement parking in 2020 and received over 15,000 responses. We have been considering all views expressed and the options for managing pavement parking. This is a complex issue and we want to ensure that local authorities have appropriate and effective tools at their disposal. We will publish the formal consultation response and announce next steps as soon as possible.