Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 4.65 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, excluding the £1.2 billion of new funding for bus transformation deals and funding for zero-emission buses announced in March 2021, what the remaining investment will be allocated to.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
At the Budget we announced more than £3 billion of spend on buses over this Parliament which includes £1.2 billion funding for bus transformation deals; £525m to deliver zero emission buses (of which £355m is new funding announced at the Budget); £1.5 billion Covid support to maintain service levels until next April; and, over £500m from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements that will directly fund bus infrastructure.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 4.65 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, how much and what proportion of the £3 billion for bus investment comprises new funding.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
At the Budget we announced more than £3 billion of spend on buses over this Parliament which includes £1.2 billion funding for bus transformation deals; £525m to deliver zero emission buses (of which £355m is new funding announced at the Budget); £1.5 billion Covid support to maintain service levels until next April; and, over £500m from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements that will directly fund bus infrastructure.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 4.65 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, what the £3 billion of bus investment across the Parliament will be allocated to.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
At the Budget we announced more than £3 billion of spend on buses over this Parliament which includes £1.2 billion funding for bus transformation deals; £525m to deliver zero emission buses (of which £355m is new funding announced at the Budget); £1.5 billion Covid support to maintain service levels until next April; and, over £500m from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements that will directly fund bus infrastructure.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to help DVLA reduce the backlog of applications for driving licences.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online services are the quickest and easiest way to renew a driving licence. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their driving licence within a few days. However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application for a driving licence and the DVLA receives 60,000 items of mail each day. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.
The DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham to house more staff to help reduce waiting times while providing future resilience and business continuity.
These measures are having a positive impact. In particular, the focus on vocational driving licence applications to support the HGV driver shortage has been successful with routine vocational applications now being processed within normal turnaround times. Backlogs are also reducing in other areas.
The DVLA understands the impact that delays can have on people’s everyday lives and is working as quickly as possible to process paper applications and return people’s documentation to them.
I am pleased to say that the speed of reducing the number of paper applications awaiting processing will be improved by the recent positive news that the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) did not reach the minimum threshold of a 50 per cent turnout in its recent ballot of members to continue industrial action.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to provide further support to the DVLA in helping to reduce the shortage of HGV drivers.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has focused extra resource on vocational driving licence applications to support the driver shortage. This has been successful with routine applications for vocational driving licences, including for HGVs, now being processed within normal turnaround times of five working days. The DVLA has recently processed more than 40,000 applications for vocational licences in just 25 working days. It may take longer to process cases where medical investigations are needed.
On 15 November, legislation came into force to remove the requirement for HGV drivers to obtain entitlement to drive rigid lorries before being able to take a test to drive articulated lorries. This has streamlined the licensing process with the aim of getting fully qualified HGV drivers on the road as soon as possible.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the finding of Common Wealth's report, All Aboard: Transforming Bus Services, that high levels of deregulation and privatisation in the bus network disproportionately impacts people that are marginalised by the current economic system.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We have noted the publication of the Common Wealth report. The Government’s National Bus Strategy supports the delivery of more socially and economically necessary services and during this Parliament we will invest £1.2 billion of new funding to deliver improvements in services, fares and infrastructure.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the findings of the Common Wealth think tank's report, All Aboard: Transforming Bus Services, on the effect of bus privatisation, deregulation and austerity on (a) fares, (b) reliability of services and (c) pay and conditions of bus workers.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We have noted the publication of the Common Wealth report. The Government’s National Bus Strategy supports the delivery of more socially and economically necessary services and during this Parliament we will invest £1.2 billion of new funding to deliver improvements in services, fares and infrastructure.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 2.109 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, published on 27 October 2021, how many zero emission buses will be funded by the additional £355 million funding; and what the planned timescale is for (a) producing and (b) delivering those buses to roads.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
As set out in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, £355 million of new funding has been made available for zero emission buses. £150 million of this funding has been made available for 2021-22 with the remaining funding available over the Spending Review period. The Department will provide further details on how the £355 million of new funding will be used in due course.
In addition, up to 900 zero emission buses and associated infrastructure will be supported through existing funding made available since February 2020 from the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme, the All Electric Bus Town or City scheme and the Ultra Low Emission Bus scheme.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 4.65 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, published on 27 October 2021 on the additional £70 million Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) funding, how many buses are (a) in production and (b) on the road.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
£70.8 million has been allocated from the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) to five local transport authorities: Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority, Leicester City Council, Kent County Council, Milton Keynes Council and Warrington Borough Council.
Now that funding has been allocated, local transport authorities can begin implementing their proposals to introduce zero emission buses and supporting infrastructure.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to data published by his Department which shows a reduction of 15.9 per cent in the total number of licensed taxi and private hire vehicles between March 2020 and March 2021, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the financial support provided by the Government to those vehicle industries.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The majority of taxi and PHV drivers are self-employed and were therefore able to apply for grants through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) before the scheme closed on 30 September 2021.
Drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles may also have been eligible for other sources of support, including locally administered grant funding. An online support finder tool was made available to help businesses and self-employed workers determine what support was available to them.
Ongoing engagement with sector stakeholders indicate that demand for taxi and private hire vehicles (PHVs) is very high with PHV operators seeking to increase driver numbers to meet this.