Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his planned timetable is for providing local authorities (a) information on (i) funding profiles and (ii) conditions and (b) guidance on spending for funding allocated through the Local Transport Fund.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is working with His Majesty’s Treasury to agree the funding profile for the Local Transport Fund as well as the split between capital and revenue funding. The Department will provide advice for local transport authorities shortly on the scope, process and accountability framework for the new funding, to ensure that local authorities can develop delivery plans to make the most of it.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of progress on the implementation of the [a] headlamp aiming criteria and [b] requirements for mandatory automatic headlamp levelling agreed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s road vehicle lighting expert group in April 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Progress is being made at the United Nations to change the relevant regulations to introduce revised headlamp aiming criteria and mandatory headlamp levelling. The administrative process and transitional provisions permit sufficient time for vehicle manufacturers to redesign their products and adapt the manufacturing process to ensure conformity with the tighter tolerances, and is expected to come into effect in September 2027.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to engage with the disability community when developing transport policy.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Department for Transport (DfT) officials engage regularly with disabled people and disability groups throughout policy development.
Guidance is provided to the whole department on how stakeholder engagement can be an effective way of identifying potential impacts and opportunities to improve inclusion and help us to meet the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). This includes engagement with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC). Involving DPTAC from the earliest stages of policy development helps us to ensure our policies deliver for disabled people.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to (a) implement the Future of Transport Rural Strategy and (b) consult on reforming grant funding for bus operators.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department for Transport published its ‘Future of Transport: supporting rural transport innovation’ guidance in early October, and will now work to implement its pledges, such as working closer with local leadership to help deploy and scale innovative new technologies in rural communities. As part of this guide, the Department is making up to £3 million of funding available for rural innovation. This will help explore innovative solutions to long-standing issues, such as loneliness and isolation, poor access to services and economically challenging business cases for rural transport services.
The Government committed to reforming the Bus Service Operator Grant (BSOG) in the National Bus Strategy and intends to publish a consultation later this year. The consultation will seek views from bus operators and local authorities on several measures to modernise and future-proof the BSOG. We intend to include proposals for distance-based payments that may help rural operators and simplify the administration of the grant.
Our support for buses includes community transport too. We have just announced that the Government will continue to provide increased financial support to these community transport operators to help protect these key services by uplifting their bus service operator grant claims by 60%. This significant support will be available to operators for claims from 1 July 2023 to the end of March 2025.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to support active travel in (a) Leicestershire and (b) Bosworth during the (i) covid-19 pandemic and (ii) subsequent years to 2023.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In 2020, as part of the Emergency Active Travel Fund and Active Travel Fund 2, Leicestershire County Council was awarded £1,235,164 in capital and revenue funding to take forward their active travel schemes.
In January 2023, the Government awarded Leicestershire County Council £191,787 of Capability Funding for 2022-23 to carry out community engagement activities, develop infrastructure plans and designs, undertake public consultation, and collect evidence. This builds on the £168,500 that Leicestershire was awarded in Capability Funding in 2021-22.
ATE has assigned all authorities in England, excluding London, a Regional Manager and is committed to working closely with local authorities to help support active travel programmes and capability across England.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the level of understanding among road users of the changes to the Highway Code introduced in January 2022.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The January 2022 changes to The Highway Code to help improve road safety for people walking, cycling and horse riding have been communicated via:
The campaign has been supported by significant media spend, utilising channels such as radio, digital audio, video on demand and social media advertising.
- The percentage of road users reporting to know either a little or a lot about the Highway Code changes increased from 36% in January 2022 to 58% in August 2022, with 83% of road users having heard of the changes by August 2022.
- The percentage of people who agreed that motor vehicles do have priority on the roads fell from 68% in January 2022 to 61% in August 2022.
- 78% of road users correctly identified the need for a 1.5m gap when passing cyclists in January 2022, rising to 84% in August 2022. Understanding that cyclists may ride two abreast also increased from 30% to 46%. The percentage of drivers reporting that they always leave a 1.5 metre gap when passing cyclists rose from 50% in January 2022 to 58% in August 2022.
- Recognition among the target audience of at least one of the campaign assets was 57% at Phase 1 and 53% at Phase 2. Of the respondents that recognised the 30 second hero assets from Phase 2, nearly nine in ten (84%) said they had done something as a result.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to identify congested sections of the A5 between Hinckley and Tamworth that can be improved through the Third Road Investment Strategy.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
To help identify the current pressures and future needs of the strategic road network, National Highways is developing its route strategies for the third road period. The Hinckley to Tamworth section of the A5 has been considered principally within the South Midlands route strategy. National Highways has developed a number of objectives for the route and identified a series of potential areas for further investigation. The interim findings will be published shortly alongside the Department’s consultation on RIS3.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to ensure that the A5 between Hinckley and Tamworth is considered for future improvements as part of the Third Road Investment Strategy.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
On 9 March 2023, the Secretary of State for Transport made a statement to Parliament. This set out that schemes originally being considered as part of the pipeline of schemes for potential inclusion in the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) between 2025 and 2030 will continue to be developed to an appropriate stage, but for consideration for inclusion during RIS4 (beyond 2030). This includes the A5 Hinckley to Tamworth scheme.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the Demand Responsive Transport schemes; and whether his Department is taking steps to support the expansion of Demand Responsive Transport scheme trials such as Fox Connect and its extension to Bosworth.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Our £20m Rural Mobility Fund is supporting 17 innovative, demand-led minibus trials in rural and suburban areas. A monitoring and evaluation process is in place. We expect to publish interim findings in the first half of 2023, further findings in late 2023/early 2024, and the final findings in 2025 in the form of written reports. However, the exact timings and dissemination approach will be determined closer to the time.
There are no current plans for further bespoke DRT funding from the Department for Transport. Expansion of the ‘Fox Connect’ pilot scheme to include Bosworth would be a matter for Leicestershire County Council.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Civil Aviation Authority's letter of 9 June 2002 to airlines and airports on standards of provision for disabled and less mobile passengers, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of progress by (a) airlines and (b) airports on improving the accessibility of air travel.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Aviation accessibility is a priority for Government, and the Department are working alongside the CAA to ensure that disabled passengers and those with reduced mobility have the assistance they require to travel with ease.
Following the letter on 9 June 2022, the CAA published additional guidance to airports on providing assistance services. Due to the disruption seen during the summer, the CAA published an interim report on the performance of airports against its accessibility framework in December 2022. The report showed improvement or maintenance of good service across a number of the airports assessed, but also highlighted airports requiring further improvement. The CAA will continue to monitor and work with these airports on plans to implement improvements and publish its usual annual report later this year. The CAA will soon publish a consultation on development of an airline accessibility framework, similar to the existing airport framework.