Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Coombes Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Simon Lightwood]

The Government are investing over £2 billion in London’s transport network, which is the largest Government investment in London’s existing transport network for over a decade. That means that London can invest £500 million in the Central line improvement programme to upgrade signalling and refurbish those 30-year-old trains. Some refurbished trains are already in operation, and the programme will complete by 2029. The hon. Member also referenced the issue with graffiti. I know that the mayor is concerned about that and has deployed a dedicated team of over 120 people to remove graffiti as quickly as possible; over 3,000 tags were removed from Central line trains in April.

[Sarah Coombes (West Bromwich) (Lab)]

15. What steps she is taking to improve road safety.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Heidi Alexander)]

In January, we published the road safety strategy, which envisages a safer future for everyone on the road through targets to cut deaths and serious injuries by 65% for everyone and by 70% for children by 2035. It also promotes partnership working between Government, local authorities, industry and others to save thousands of lives and ease pressure on the NHS.

[Sarah Coombes]

I was grateful to the Secretary of State for visiting Kenrick Way in my constituency last year, which is used as a racetrack by dangerous car cruisers, making residents’ lives hell. I have been campaigning for a camera to be installed there, which finally happened a few weeks ago, and I found out yesterday that it has already caught people driving at 125 mph along this residential road. Other countries install technology to limit speeds for repeat offenders, so can the Secretary of State set out what kind of technological solutions we are looking at to limit speeds for repeat dangerous drivers in this country?

[Heidi Alexander]

I recall the visit to my hon. Friend’s constituency, where I met her and the west midlands police and crime commissioner, Simon Foster. I remember being struck by how dangerous and pervasive that form of reckless behaviour is on her local roads. The Government are considering whether to mandate alcolocks in cars in cases of repeat and high-risk drink-driving offenders. My hon. Friend raises an interesting question about whether technological solutions could also be applied in cases of dangerous street racers. I will ask officials in my Department to do more work on what the possibilities are.