Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has had recent discussions with car manufacturers on the potential impact of digitally connected cars on the safety of domestic abuse survivors.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Responsibility for domestic abuse policy rests with the Home Office. The Government has set out an ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. The Department for Transport has not carried out discussions with car manufacturers on this issue.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had recent discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority on reinstating the airspace for Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is proactively engaging with relevant parties on how Doncaster Sheffield Airport can secure the airspace it needs.
My officials are in regular discussions with the City of Doncaster Council and the CAA to stay up to date with developments.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has to publish a road safety strategy.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Since the general election, the Department has begun work on a new Road Safety Strategy - the first in over a decade. The Department will share more details on this Road Safety Strategy in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average distance between refuges will be across the Smart Motorway network following the conclusion of the retrofitting of new emergency refuges.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
National Highways is adding over 150 Emergency Refuge Areas (ERAs) across the All Lane Running (ALR) network, to be completed by the end of March 2025. Some ERAs are still under construction, and sitings may be subject to final change due to topographical challenges. Once the rollout is completed, National Highways will be able to calculate the average spacing of places to stop in an emergency across the whole ALR network. We will share this information as soon as it becomes available.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to extend the £2 cap on bus fares after 31 December 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Delivering reliable and affordable public transport services for passengers is one of my top priorities and I know how important this is for passengers and for local growth. The government is urgently considering the most effective and affordable ways to deliver on these objectives.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many new emergency refuges will be constructed as part of the programme of retrofitting to existing smart motorways.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
National Highways is constructing 150 additional Emergency Refuge Areas across the All Lane Running smart motorway network. Construction, which is already well underway, began in 2022. The project is expected to be completed by the end of March 2025.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many sections of dual carriageway are subject to reduced speed limits due to the condition of central reservation safety barriers as of 28 November 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
There are currently no speed restrictions in place on any stretch of dual carriageway on the Strategic Road Network due to the condition of the central reservation safety barriers.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times the National Highways CHARM system has suffered an outage lasting in excess of ten minutes in the last 12 months.
Answered by Richard Holden - Opposition Whip (Commons)
In the last 12 months there have been: 18 planned outages for routine maintenance and upgrades, and 21 unplanned outages, lasting more than 10 minutes to the CHARM system. Of these, 26 impacted single regions only.
During these outages National Highways has well-rehearsed mitigations in place, including, but not limited to dedicated Traffic Officer patrols and increased monitoring of CCTV.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March 2023 to Question 158934 and the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 163764 on Road Traffic Control, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of redundancy systems for National Highways’ CHARM system in the context of the outage on 22 February 2023.
Answered by Richard Holden - Opposition Whip (Commons)
On rare occasions, the nature of a failure may prevent the operation of CHARM for longer periods of time and when this happens National Highways has well-rehearsed procedures in place to help ensure the safety of road users, such as increased patrols and CCTV monitoring. Safety remains our priority and National Highways investigates every outage to ensure that steps are taken to prevent future occurrences.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how may traffic officer vehicles have been involved in an accident in a live lane on smart motorways in the last 12 months.
Answered by Richard Holden - Opposition Whip (Commons)
National Highways does not hold this data in the format requested.