Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of publishing vehicle type data as part of detailed crash data currently published by his Department.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Information on the type of vehicles involved in reported road accidents is included in the Department’s Reported Road Casualty statistics and the detailed datasets which are made available on data.gov.uk alongside this publication.
This information comes from the STATS19 dataset of accidents reported by the police, including via the Collision Recording and Sharing (CRaSH) system.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timeframe is for returning passports to foreign nationals applying for provisional driving licences; and what steps he is taking to help ensure those timeframes are met.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is currently processing can be found here. The DVLA is changing its procedures to return identity documents to customers earlier in the process, given the importance of these documents to applicants.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23July 2021 to Question 34070 on Pavement Parking, when the result of the Government’s consultation on pavement parking is planned to be published.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We are giving careful consideration to the large volume of responses to this consultation and will publish the outcome as soon as possible.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress he has made on negotiations to extend the quarantine-free covid-19 travel rules for double-vaccinated travellers from Amber list countries to include people who have received their full WHO-recognised vaccinations in a country other than the UK.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
We are working closely with international partners on reopening travel and will provide an update in due course on how to safely reopen travel for fully vaccinated people from overseas.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the promotion of the use of fluorescent clothing by cyclists.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Action 41 of the Government response to the 2018 Cycling and Walking Safety Review committed the Department to commission a package of research to look into the technical, physiological and behavioural issues relating to the visibility and audibility of cyclists with the aim of recommending future interventions.
The Department commissioned NatCen to conduct an evidence review to understand the factors behind collisions involving cyclists where road users failed to look properly, or looked but failed to see a cyclist, and to assess possible interventions to minimise these types of collisions, including the use of high visibility and florescent clothing. The review is now largely complete and the Department is due to publish the report shortly.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential need for increased infrastructure investment in areas designated for freeports.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government intends to authorize up to ten freeports across the four nations of the UK. We have consulted on the framework, and responses to that consultation are currently under consideration, but no sites have yet been selected. Infrastructure requirements, whether the responsibility of the private or public sector, will be integral to the selection and site development processes.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of space for pushchairs on trains.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
There are mandatory standards for rail vehicle accessibility. The standards include the provision of wheelchair spaces on trains as well as making travel easier for those travelling with prams/pushchairs and small children. Except where a dispensation exists, all rail vehicles, including trams, must meet the accessibility standards and my Department is closely monitoring the rail industry’s progress towards meeting them.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will made an assessment of the safety of the smart motorway section of the M1 from junction 32 to junction 35a.
Answered by George Freeman
Any death on our roads is one too many. We want our roads to be as safe as possible.
That is why the Secretary of State asked the Department to carry out an evidence stocktake to gather the facts about the safety of smart motorways and make recommendations. The Department will present the findings of the stocktake shortly.
While I would not want to pre-judge the results of that work, what I can say is that we will continue to prioritise improving safety – making conditions safer for everyone on our roads. The Roads Minister will write to you as soon as the stocktake is completed to answer your specific question.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the merits of the use of the exceptional hardship exception for the sentencing of drivers who would otherwise be disqualified from driving.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is responsible for maintaining a record of all GB fixed penalties and court ordered driving licence endorsements. Sentencing, including the imposition and length of a driving disqualification, is a matter for the courts.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to respond to the independent report on Taxi and private hire vehicle licensing: recommendations for a safer and more robust system, published on 24 September 2018.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave on 14 January 2019, to Question UIN 206796 which is available at: [MS1] https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-01-09/206796/