Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many commercial flights have (1) taken off, and (2) landed, in the UK each day from 23 March to 16 July.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Transport does not currently hold complete official statistics on commercial flight operations for the period requested. Data on the operation of commercial flights in the UK is collected by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and received from UK airports typically up to two months after the end of each month in adherence to statistical regulation (EC) 437/2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air. As indicated on the CAA’s website, some airports have not yet reported data, which prevents the full UK picture being established.
Monitoring of flight traffic conducted by Eurocontrol, which publicly reports on daily flight traffic levels across its member states on their website, can be used to identify the overall number of flights operated in the UK each day since 1 March 2020, and includes both commercial and non-commercial operations for international arrival, departure and domestic flights.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is a backlog of applications for driving licences at the DVLA; if so, what is the size of that backlog; and when they expect any backlog to be cleared.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The DVLA’s online services have continued to work as normal throughout the pandemic. Drivers are advised to use the online services wherever possible as it is the quickest and easiest way of renewing a licence. Since 23 March the DVLA has issued just over 1.5 million driving licences.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is based predominantly in one building in Swansea. Due to the reduced number of staff on-site at any one time to maintain social distancing, there are delays in dealing with paper applications that have been posted to that office. The number of paper driving licence applications waiting to be processed fluctuates on a daily basis as licences are issued and new applications received.
The DVLA is actively working to process these applications as quickly as possible and has reconfigured its offices to accommodate more operational staff while maintaining the two metre social distancing requirements in Wales.
It is not possible to estimate how long it will take to process these applications.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for extending tram services from Birmingham to Coventry.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Extensions to the West Midlands Metro are for the West Midlands Combined Authority to consider and will be subject to future funding being secured. The West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street, has already done significant work in improving connectivity across the West Midlands. For example, the Mayor has allocated a substantial portion of the West Midlands’ Transforming Cities Fund allocation to fund the Brierley Hill extension to the West Midlands Metro on which services are expected to commence in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many bypass schemes in England are awaiting funding approval.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
There are 22 bypass schemes in England currently awaiting funding approval. These are schemes for which Local Authority sponsors have submitted Outline Business Cases which the Government is currently considering.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of electric vehicle charging points in England.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government and industry have supported the installation of over 17,000 devices providing over 24,000 publicly available chargepoints. This includes over 2,500 rapid chargepoints – one of the largest networks in Europe. Our grant schemes and our £400m public-private Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF) will see thousands more electric vehicle chargepoints installed across the UK with the first £70 million of the CIIF delivering another 3,000 rapid chargepoints by 2024.
Along with the private sector, the Government will invest £1 billion in charging infrastructure – making sure that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid charging station for electric vehicles. The Government consulted on proposals for chargepoints to be installed with all newly built homes in England, where appropriate. Highways England has a commitment of £15m to ensure there are chargepoints (rapid where possible) every 20 miles on 95% of the Strategic Road Network by 2020. In July 2019 work commenced to determine a vision for a core rapid charger network on England’s strategic road network. The Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) will set out a vision in early 2020 for a core infrastructure network of rapid and high powered chargepoints along England’s key road network. In January, OLEV announced the doubling of the value of the On-street Residential Charging Scheme to £10 million to support chargepoints for motorists who do not have off-street parking.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the accessibility of trains for wheelchair users.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Mandatory accessibility standards for trains have been in force since 1999. In that time over 9,400 new vehicles that offer wheelchair spaces, wheelchair passenger call-for-aid devices, boarding ramps and accessible toilets (where there are toilets offered on board) have been brought in to service for mainline services. A further 4,167 trains have been refurbished to offer these features. Over the coming months the small number of trains without dedicated wheelchair spaces will complete the necessary upgrades, meaning all mainline trains will offer compliant spaces for the safe and comfortable carriage of wheelchair passengers.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the accessibility of taxis for wheelchair users.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to developing an inclusive transport system which disabled people, including wheelchair users, can use easily and confidently. It is vital that taxis and private hire vehicle services play their role in ensuring that wheelchair users have the same access to public transport as everyone else.
The previous Government’s response to the Task and Finish Group report on taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) licensing, set out its commitment to taking action to ensure that taxi and PHV drivers receive disability awareness training. This remains the Government’s position.
In the meantime, later in the year we propose to issue for consultation revised best practice guidance for local licensing authorities, which will include strengthened recommendations on supporting an inclusive service.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support bus franchising in England.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Bus Services Act 2017 provides mayoral combined authorities with automatic access to franchising powers.
Other local authorities may franchise bus services with the consent of the Secretary of State. Guidance on what the Secretary of State will consider in deciding whether to franchise is available on the gov.uk website.
We have no plans to change those arrangements at present.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide further funding to local authorities to tackle potholes in England.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Transport is allocating £6.6 billion between 2015/16 and 2020/21 to local highway authorities for local highway maintenance funding, including £296 million from the Pothole Action Fund, for the repair of potholes or to stop them forming. Further funding will be subject to the Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the new metro mayors have made use of the bus franchising powers granted to them by the Bus Services Act 2017.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government is not aware of any metro mayors who have implemented a bus franchising scheme and there is no central record of this information. Some Mayoral Combined Authorities may be in the process of preparing a bus franchising scheme, but the Bus Services Act does not require any intervention or approval by central Government as part of this process. Information on this topic could best be obtained by contacting Mayoral Combined Authorities.