Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 25 March 2026 to WPQ 121808, what proportion of the Customer and Communities Designated Fund within the Road Investment Strategy 3 is allocated to (a) HGV parking capacity and (b) driver welfare facilities; and what targets have been set for delivery of additional HGV parking spaces over the RIS3 period.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Further detail on RIS3 funding allocations will be set out by National Highways in its Delivery Plan.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff are employed by the HS2 Ltd Helpdesk.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Twenty FTE (Full Time Equivalent) staff are employed on the HS2 Ltd helpdesk.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had discussions with his Ukrainian counterparts regarding the fit of a) uniform and b) body armour for female soldiers in combat operations, and whether his Department has discussed lessons learnt from the Government of Ukraine.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence remains firmly committed to ensuring that all service personnel are equipped with appropriate and effective protective equipment. As part of this commitment, we are delivering an update to body armour for UK personnel through the Tactical Ballistic Plates project.
Procurement experts within the National Armaments Director group work closely with the Ministry of Defence's Op INTERFLEX Handling and Processing team, which collates feedback from Armed Forces of Ukraine personnel. This includes lessons from operational experience and female user feedback, which help to inform UK capability development.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2026 to Question 122525, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of click-throughs from (a) social media advertising and (b) DVSA job alert emails that resulted in (i) started and (ii) completed applications for driving examiner roles in the last 12 months.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All driving examiner (DE) applications are made through Civil Service Jobs on GOV.UK. At the point of submitting an application on Civil Service Jobs no applicant source information is recorded.
Answer to Question 122526, 20 March 2026, provides details of subsequent surveys that might be completed by applicants.
Answer to Question 122526, 20 March 2026, also provided information on click through rates, but notes that it is not possible to say what number of these click throughs resulted in completed applications.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2026 to Question 122543 on Driving Tests: Recruitment, what data the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency collects on the source of applications for driving examiner roles at the point of application submission.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All driving examiner (DE) applications are made through Civil Service Jobs on GOV.UK. At the point of submitting an application on Civil Service Jobs no applicant source information is recorded.
Answer to Question 122526, 20 March 2026, provides details of subsequent surveys that might be completed by applicants.
Answer to Question 122526, 20 March 2026, also provided information on click through rates, but notes that it is not possible to say what number of these click throughs resulted in completed applications.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2026 to Question 122545 on the Vehicle Certification Agency: Fees and Charges, whether her Department has produced internal estimates of the additional annual revenue expected from the proposed fee increases.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) recently consulted on changes to certain fees. As part of the fee setting process the government considers all the evidence provided as well as long standing principles included in Managing Public Money. Any fee changes require the consent of this House through a fee order. As is the standard practice, I will update the House in due course
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 30 March 2026 to Question 123517 on Electric Vehicles: Costs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of introducing requirements for standardised battery state of health information on the (a) regulatory burden on (i) manufacturers and (ii) sellers and (b) used electric vehicle prices.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
On 13 April 2026, the Department launched a public consultation on updating the minimum emission standards for new road vehicles to Euro 7.
Assessment of the impact of introducing these requirements will be included within the regulatory impact assessment accompanying any proposed legislation. Responses to the public consultation will be taken into account when completing this assessment.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March 2026 to Question 116574, what minimum number of public electric vehicle chargepoints her Department considers necessary by 2030 to meet anticipated demand; and how she will determine whether delivery is on track in the absence of a defined benchmark.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
An estimate of potential future demand for chargers was originally published in the 2022 “Taking Charge: The National Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy” and was updated in 2024 to a range of 250,000 to 550,000 in 2030. Both the 2024 NAO ‘public chargepoints for electric vehicles’ report, and the Climate Change Committee 2025 Progress report, concluded that charge point rollout is on track.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has held discussions with the Royal Aeronautical Society since July 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My officials routinely engage with a broad range of aviation stakeholders, including the Royal Aeronautical Society, to support strong and effective collaboration between government and industry on aviation related matters.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the written ministerial statement of 23 March 2026 on Rail Infrastructure, HCWS1433, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of reducing the operating speed of HS2 on passenger capacity.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has requested that Mark Wild look at ways to remove gold plating and complexity from the HS2 project, and if a slightly reduced specification could save time and money. We will not make the same mistakes of the past of making changes to scope without understanding all of the impacts, including on passenger capacity. We will not take any decisions until this work is complete.