Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing flexible railway ticketing.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Flexible Season Tickets are available across all contracted train operators. They offer most commuters who travel two or three days per week better value compared to both day tickets and other season tickets.
All TOCs offer anytime and off-peak tickets for flexible travel through the day. While LNER have removed off-peak tickets on a small number of trial routes, passengers can still purchase flexibility on these routes with the semi-flexible ticket. This ticket allows passengers to travel 70 minutes either side of the booked journey.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve road safety in County Durham.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Local authorities are responsible for the management of local roads, within the rules set by Government. It is for the local council to decide what measures may be appropriate in their local areas.
The Safer Roads Fund is an innovative, non-competitive programme that provides funding for the most high risk rural ‘A’ roads in England. To date 99 roads have been funded amounting to £185.8 million - including £2.94 million this year for the A690 in County Durham.
These 99 schemes can include designing new junctions and roundabouts, improving signage and road markings, landscape management, road resurfacing, improved crossings, and cycle lanes. The Safer Roads Fund schemes are estimated to save approximately 2,600 lives and serious injuries throughout their 20-year economic life, as well as reducing congestion, improving journey times, and lowering emissions.
The safety of our roads is an absolute priority for this Government and will support our health mission. We are committed to delivering a new Road Safety Strategy – the first in over a decade. We will set out next steps on this in due course.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve safety for (a) cyclists and (b) pedestrians in County Durham.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Between 2020/21 to 2023/24, almost £4,000,000 of capital funding has been invested in County Durham for new and improved schemes to improve safety and boost walking, wheeling and cycling, including on the National Cycle Network. In addition, the North East Combined Authority has been awarded over £5,600,000 of revenue funding since 2021/22.
Active Travel England has been working closely with the North East Combined Authority and its constituent local authorities to boost officer capability to design schemes that improve safety of cyclists and pedestrians. Durham also receives support through national training and engagement programmes that improve safety, including Bikeability cycle training, Walk to School Outreach and Big Bike Revival.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what criteria his Department used to assess applications to the Safer Roads Fund.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The local authorities that have been pre-selected for funding are invited to submit an application. This selection is based on robust Department for Transport data that has been further analysed by the Road Safety Foundation. This process is non-competitive.
After an initial meeting with Department officials to discuss their particular route and its issues, they submit their proposals for assessment. Each application is seen independently by 2 Safer Roads Fund officials at the DfT and an economist. The Safer Roads Fund Team also discuss the applications, making sure they have passed a list of criteria including governance, quality assurance, affordability and a risk register. HM Treasury must approve an overview of the proposed funded schemes before funds can be released.
As it is a non-competitive process, the eligible bids are assessed to ensure that the local authorities’ planned interventions will successfully capture the Road Safety Foundation modelled interventions to reduce risks on the selected route.
Local authorities have access at all times to support from the DfT and the Road Safety Foundation.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's Circular 01/2013, whether it remains Government policy that a 30 mph speed limit should be the norm in villages.
Answered by Guy Opperman
30mph remains the default speed limit in built-up areas. Unless an order has been made and the road is signed to the contrary, a 30 mph speed limit applies where there is a system of street lighting furnished by means of lamps placed not more than 200 yards apart.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure sufficient pavement grit is available for winter 2023-24 in the City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Richard Holden - Opposition Whip (Commons)
Pavement grit is a matter for Durham County Council.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the safety of pedestrians in (a) City of Durham constituency and (b) County Durham.
Answered by Richard Holden - Opposition Whip (Commons)
The Department for Transport updated The Highway Code on 29 January 2022 to include changes to improve safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders.
The local council has responsibility for making decisions about local roads, based on its local knowledge and taking into account local needs.
Durham City Council was also awarded £528,000 from the Safer Roads Fund in 2016/17 for improvements to the A67. Pedestrian related improvements funded included pedestrian crossing points at various locations along the A67 in Barnard castle and Startforth Park.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information the Government holds on the number of electric vehicle charging points in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
For the City of Durham constituency, the table below details the number of: ,
i. publicly available electric vehicle charging devices as at 1st July 2023 according to Zapmap;
ii. domestic electric vehicle charging devices funded by the Domestic Recharge Scheme (DRS) as at the scheme end in 2014;
iii. domestic electric vehicle charging devices funded through the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) at 1st July 2023 and;
iv. workplace electric vehicle charging sockets funded through the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) at 1st July 2023.
| i.) Public charging devices | ii.) DRS charging devices | iii.) EVHS charging devices | iv.) WCS charging sockets |
City of Durham constituency | 93 | 393 | 640 | 113 |
Data on electric vehicle charging devices in the UK, held by the Department for Transport, is sourced from those installed or funded under Government approved grant schemes, operated by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) and from the electric vehicle charging platform Zapmap. Charging devices not supplied via these schemes or recorded on Zapmap are not included and the actualnumber of charging devices may be higher than recorded in these figures.
The data across columns should not be summed to create a total as public charging devices, DRS and EVHS statistics count charging devices, whereas WCS counts charging sockets, making them incompatible to sum together.
A geographic breakdown of data from the Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant (EVCG) scheme has not yet been published,and so has been excluded from this table. Data for charging devices installed through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) is not available at parliamentary constituency level.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when Bus Service Improvement Plan funding will be delivered to Transport North East.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Department has been clear that Bus Service improvement Plan funding is conditional on the submission and implementation of a transformational Enhanced Partnership or franchising arrangement.
We are currently working with Transport North East on developing their EP with a view to delivering funding once we are satisfied that this is in place.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of exercising the powers in the Harbours Act 1964 to issue Harbour Revision Orders in response to the actions against UK seafarers taken by P&O Ferries on 17 March 2022.
Answered by Robert Courts
The use of Harbour Revision Orders was considered as part of the overall response to actions undertaken by P&O ferries. The use of Harbour Revision Orders, which as a process is primarily operated by the Marine Management Organisation, was judged not to be suitable as a response to this situation. As a harbour revision order applies only to a single harbour, and so for any unified response a Harbour Revision Order would need to be drafted for every port, this was deemed a less than ideal method for any potential government action.