Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when she plans to publish the guidance entitled Manual For Streets 3.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is working to bring together and update the Manual for Streets and Manual for Streets 2 to ensure the advice within them is still relevant and enables those designing streets to do so in a way that contributes to sustainable, healthy and active communities. A date for publication has not been set.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the report by National Infrastructure Commission entitled Electricity distribution networks: creating capacity for the future, published on 21 February 2025.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government welcomes the overall thrust of the National Infrastructure Commission’s study and its focus on supporting strategic investment in the distribution network. We are reviewing the detail of the study with our key delivery partners and will publish a response to the individual recommendations this spring. This will include how current policy work is addressing the recommendations and how we will build on this in the future.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 7 May 2024 to 24262, whether the Innovative Devices Access Pathway pilot will conclude in March 2025; and what his planned timetable is for assessing the findings of the pilot.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Innovative Devices Access Pathway (IDAP) pilot will conclude in March 2025. We are continuing to seek feedback from the pilot, which will capture key insights and learnings to help inform the feasibility and development of a future pathway. This will inform a wider evaluation of IDAP. We will complete this evaluation soon after the conclusion of the pilot and intend to publish a report in spring.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress she has made on the preparation of the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials are scoping out options for the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, and the Department will say more on this in due course. The Department will consult stakeholders before the publication of the Strategy, as required by the 2015 Infrastructure Act, and will also report to Parliament later this year on the delivery of the second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to develop programmes promoting active lifestyles for children and young people as recommended in the article by Sarah MacQuarrie and Alexandra Hennessey entitled Transforming children and young people’s futures through PE, school sport, and physical activity, published on 12 February 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government values physical education (PE) and sport as a way to improve not only the health, but the wellbeing and lives of all children and young people. Existing government-funded programmes look to address this with the primary PE and sport premium and the School Games Organisers.
To address specific barriers, we have recently launched an open procurement for a new grant programme for up to 3 financial years (from April 2025 to March 2028 at up to £300,000 per year) to develop and deliver a programme that improves and increases PE, school sport and physical activity opportunities for pupils with SEND. The inclusive education hub, funded by the department through the inclusion 2024 programme is an online platform of bespoke resources to help schools make PE and sport more inclusive.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendations within the article entitled Transforming children and young people’s futures through PE, school sport, and physical activity, published by the University of Manchester on 12 February 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government values physical education (PE) and sport as a way to improve not only the health, but the wellbeing and lives of all children and young people. Existing government-funded programmes look to address this with the primary PE and sport premium and the School Games Organisers.
To address specific barriers, we have recently launched an open procurement for a new grant programme for up to 3 financial years (from April 2025 to March 2028 at up to £300,000 per year) to develop and deliver a programme that improves and increases PE, school sport and physical activity opportunities for pupils with SEND. The inclusive education hub, funded by the department through the inclusion 2024 programme is an online platform of bespoke resources to help schools make PE and sport more inclusive.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle the public health risks associated with high levels of nitrogen oxide pollution from diesel vehicles.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Despite significant progress, air pollution remains a significant environmental threat to human health. Leading our Health Mission, the Department of Health and Social Care is working across Government, including with the Department for Transport, to promote a reduction in the health harms of air pollution.
Tackling the public health risks associated with air pollution involves reducing concentrations of pollutants where people live, work and play. Local authorities have an important role in identifying and implementing the local measures needed to achieve legal air quality limits and clean up the air we breathe. The NO2 programme has provided £575 million to support local authorities to address nitrogen dioxide pollution and achieve compliance with legal limits in the shortest possible time, supporting measures such as Clean Air Zones, traffic management improvements and vehicle upgrade schemes, and recently agreeing Greater Manchester’s £86 million Clean Air Plan.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2025 to Question 32531 on Active Travel: Finance, how much funding her Department allocated for active travel by (a) (i) capital and (ii) revenue funding and (b) funding for local authorities, (c) funding for non-governmental organisations and (d) funding for Active Travel England's operational costs in each financial year between 2020-21 and 2023-24.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The below table sets out capital and revenue funding allocations to (a) local authorities (LA) and (b) non-government organisations (NGO), alongside funding for Active Travel England’s (ATE) operating costs from financial year 20/21 to 23/24. Final payments may differ from funding allocations.
| 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | 23/24 |
LA capital | 173.9 | 161.0 | 200.0 | 45.8 |
LA revenue | 71.1 | 36.9 | 45.7 | 57.2 |
NGO capital | 18.0 | 48.0 |
| 7.7 |
NGO revenue | 43.6 | 32.0 | 26.5 | 28.6 |
ATE operating costs |
|
| 4.0 | 10.2 |
Total | 306.6 | 277.9 | 276.2 | 149.5 |
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the estimated cost of the Great British Railways livery rebrand is.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We're delivering a once in a generation overhaul of the railways and will establish Great British Railways, a new body bringing track and train together, delivering reliable services for passengers and freight customers, and catalysing growth across the country.
We’re looking at options for GBR branding and what the roll out options are, taking into account value for money for taxpayers and ensuring minimal disruption to services.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of excess diesel emissions from vehicles using defeat devices on (a) the prevalence of respiratory diseases and (b) public health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Diesel vehicles significantly impact air pollution in the United Kingdom, primarily through emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) and particulate matter. Poor air quality is one of the largest environmental risks to public health in the UK, and epidemiological studies have shown that long-term exposure to air pollution, over years or lifetimes, reduces life expectancy, mainly due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and lung cancer. Short-term exposure, over hours or days, to elevated levels of air pollution can also cause a range of health impacts, including effects on lung function, exacerbation of asthma, increases in respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions and mortality.
The Department for Transport is responsible for setting and enforcing standards for NOx emissions from diesel vehicles. The Market Surveillance Unit within the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency is undertaking a programme looking at possible non-compliant diesel emissions in Euro 5 and Euro 6A/B/C diesel cars and vans where there is reason to believe that they contain a prohibited defeat device. The programme is designed to ensure any non-compliance found is fixed as soon as reasonably possible, working together with manufacturers to achieve real-world impacts on air quality. There is no current assessment of the potential health impacts specifically related to the use of defeat devices in diesel vehicles.