Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what additional financial provision has been made available to support the Tyne and Wear Metro between (a) April 2021 to March 2022 and (b) in subsequent years above the historic and agreed Metropolitan Rail Grant.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department for Transport has reviewed the recovery plans which light rail operators, including Nexus, submitted as part of receiving emergency Government funding, and will discuss those with each light rail operator in March. The Department continues to be in regular discussions with light rail operators to assess funding requirements beyond the currently agreed emergency funding package.
To date the Government has announced up to £41 million in Light Rail Revenue Restart Grant (LRRRG) scheme funding for the Tyne & Wear Metro for the period from March 2020 to the end of the 20/21 financial year.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the safety implications of non-implementation of maximum occupancy limits on trains.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), as the health and safety authority for Britain’s railways, is responsible for ensuring that railway companies protect passengers from health and safety risks caused by trains and infrastructure.
The Department for Transport requires train operators to carry out passenger counts as part of their franchise contracts to demonstrate that adequate capacity is being provided. The Department also requires franchisees to consider how the train fleet is matched with the timetable to minimise crowding.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of applying a maximum occupancy limits to trains.
Answered by Paul Maynard
One of the most popular features of the UK railways is that it’s a walk-on, or turn up and go service. This flexibility is much prized by passengers. The Department believes that setting occupancy limits would substantially disadvantage passengers as such a system would need to either restrict travel to those with prior reservations, or to refuse to allow passengers with valid tickets to travel on a service when its occupancy limit had been reached.
However, the Department for Transport does require train operators to carry out passenger counts as part of their franchise contracts to demonstrate that adequate capacity is being provided.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
If he will include Nissan electric vehicles in the Government’s car fleet.
Answered by John Hayes
Nissan electric vehicles already form part of the Government Car Service Fleet. Currently there are six Nissan electric cars in operation.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many ultra low emission vehicles of what models have been registered under the Plug-in Car Grant.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
17601 plug-in car grant payments have been made between the start of the scheme and 31 December 2014.
These were for the following models:
Manufacturer | Model | No. of claims paid |
Nissan | Leaf | 6398 |
Mitsubishi | Outlander | 4354 |
Toyota | Plug-in Prius | 1206 |
Vauxhall | Ampera | 1139 |
Renault | Zoe | 873 |
BMW | i3 REV | 624 |
BMW | i3 BEV | 535 |
Tesla | Model S | 515 |
Peugeot | iOn | 343 |
Mercedes | Smart Fortwo | 268 |
Mitsubishi | i-Miev | 206 |
BMW | i8 | 194 |
Citroen | C-Zero | 193 |
Porsche | Panamera | 191 |
Volvo | v60 | 177 |
Chevrolet | Volt | 130 |
VW | e-Up | 89 |
Renault | Fluence | 82 |
VW | e-Golf | 46 |
Audi | E-tron | 37 |
MIA | Mia | 1 |
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The total number of PICG claims to end December 2014 is 22125. The difference between this figure, and the total payments figure above, represents claims currently being processed in the system.
The Department for Transport also publishes registration data per model. The latest annual data is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/veh01-vehicles-registered-for-the-first-time
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of (a) his Department's staff and (b) staff working for companies contracted by his Department who are paid less than the Living Wage are (i) women and (ii) men.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department for Transport does not pay any staff less than the living wage. The Department does not hold information about rates of pay for staff working for companies contracted out by the Department.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many members of his Department's executive board are disabled.
Answered by Claire Perry
There are 17 executive and non-executive members of the Department’s executive board and we are not aware of any who have declared themselves to be disabled.
All Civil Servants are encouraged to declare their protected characteristics on the department’s equality monitoring database. This information is only accessed for statistical purposes and cannot be accessed on an individual basis. Other members of the Board are not required to declare their protected characteristic.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many members of his Department's executive board are (a) white British and (b) from any other ethnic background.
Answered by Claire Perry
There are 17 executive and non-executive members of the Department’s executive board and we are not aware of any who have declared themselves to be from any other ethnic background.
All Civil Servants are encouraged to declare their protected characteristics on the department’s database. This information is only accessed for statistical purposes and cannot be accessed on an individual basis. Other members of the Board are not required to declare their protected characteristics.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many members of his Department's executive board are (a) male and (b) female.
Answered by Claire Perry
There are 17 executive and non-executive members of the Department’s executive board of whom (a) 11 are male and (b) 6 are female.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of (a) his Department's staff and (b) staff working for companies contracted by his Department who are paid less than the Living Wage are (i) white British and (ii) from an ethnic minority background.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department for Transport does not pay any staff less than the living wage.
The Department does not hold information about rates of pay for staff working for companies contracted out by the Department.