Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the successful bids to the Restoring Your Railway Fund as of 19 December 2023.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Under the Network North announcement, the Department confirmed that a further 11 RYR-originated schemes will progress to delivery, subject to successful business cases. We are in the early stages of planning next steps, including delivery timelines, for these schemes and are working closely with Network Rail and other delivery partners to develop and deliver on these Government priorities.
There are a number of RYR schemes awaiting feedback on next steps. The Department hopes to be able to provide further details in due course.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Government has plans to legalise the use of private e-scooters.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
It is our intention that the Transport Bill will create a Low-speed Zero Emission Vehicle category that is independent from the cycle and motor vehicle categories. New powers in the Bill would subsequently allow the Department to decide which vehicles will fall into this category, and how they should be regulated to ensure safe use. We intend to use these powers to legalise private and rental e-scooter use in the future, with robust technical requirements and clear expectations on users.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that electric charging points are accessible for wheelchair users.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Government has committed £2.5 billion since 2020 to support the transition to zero emission vehicles, with funding to offset their higher upfront cost, and to accelerate the rollout of chargepoint infrastructure.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2022 to Question 23730 on Maritime Skills Commission: Staff, whether the Commission's focus is to increase diversity in the maritime taskforce.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Maritime Skills Commission was established with the purpose of assessing the current and future skills needs of the maritime sector. A separate body, the Diversity in Maritime Taskforce, with networks for Ethnicity, Mental Health, Pride and Women, was established to support increasing diversity in the sector. The two bodies, along with the Careers Taskforce, sit within Maritime UK and work closely together to support the ambitions of the Maritime 2050 Strategy and People Route Map, which included increasing diversity as a key objective for the UK maritime industry.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Veterans Railcards have been issued since the inception of that scheme.
Answered by Wendy Morton
As of June 2022, 53,900 Veterans Railcards have been sold.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June to Question 19580 on Railways: Concessions, whether his Department undertakes cross-data analysis with the Ministry of Defence to ensure that people applying for veterans railcards are veterans.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The documents needed to apply for a Veteran’s Railcard are set out on the Veteran’s Railcard Website: https://www.veterans-railcard.co.uk/are-you-eligible/
Verifying the eligibility of applicants and the validity of their documents is a matter for the Rail Delivery Group (RDG). The department is not responsible for processing railcard applications and does not, therefore, conduct cross-data analysis with the Ministry of Defence on Veteran’s Railcard applications.
We urge anyone who is aware of any incidences of fraud to contact the RDG and relevant authorities.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full-time staff the Maritime Skills Commission has.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Maritime Skills Commission has one member of staff shared with the Diversity in Maritime Taskforce. The post is funded on a two-year basis from the Department for Transport and they are employed by Maritime UK. The Chair and Commissioners are part-time volunteers.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, who the members of the Clean Maritime Council were as at 23 June 2022.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
As at 23 June 2022, the member organisations of the Clean Maritime Council were: British Ports Association; Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Affairs; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Department for Transport; ENGIE; Environmental Defence Fund; ING Bank; Innovate UK; Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology; Lloyd’s Register; Maritime and Coastguard Agency; Maritime Enterprise Working Group; Maritime London; Maritime UK; Offshore Renewable Catapult; Red Funnel; Smart Green Shipping Alliance; Strathclyde University; UK Chamber of Shipping; UK Major Ports Group, UN Climate Change Champion; University College London; Wightlink and Workboat Association.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the current funding model for the Highways Agency in relation to fulfilling their functions in the clean-up of fly-tipping incidents.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
As part of the second Road Investment Strategy, Government is providing £24 billion to fund infrastructure, maintenance and operations on the Strategic Road Network and that funding covers work towards performance targets including on litter. This focuses on parts of the Strategic Road Network that National Highways is responsible for cleansing and measures the percentage of network where litter is graded at B or above, according to the Code of Practice on litter and refuse.
This provides an incentive for National Highways to do more to combat litter and fly-tipping on the Strategic Road Network. National Highways is funded in five-year periods; we are currently developing the third Road Investment Strategy (2025-2030) which provides an opportunity to set out our performance requirements and the associated funding required.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what biometric checks are undertaken to ensure people applying for Veterans Railcards are veterans.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) is responsible for the application and verification process of the Veterans Railcards. When applying for a Veterans Railcard, applicants must provide RDG with evidence of their eligibility.
A list of accepted documents is available on the Veterans Railcard website: https://www.veterans-railcard.co.uk/are-you-eligible/.