Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate her Department has made of the amount of agricultural land required for bio-aviation fuels to meet (a) existing and (b) potential demand to allow for expansion of (i) Heathrow airport and (ii) other UK airports.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) mandate scheme is driving the uptake of lower carbon fuels used in aviation. The scheme does not support the supply of biofuels made from food, feed or energy crops. SAF must be made from sustainable wastes or residues (such as used cooking oil or forestry residues), recycled carbon fuels (e.g. unrecyclable plastics), or be power to liquid fuels made using low carbon (renewable or nuclear) electricity. Given these feedstocks do not require land, no estimate has been made of the amount of agricultural land required for bio-aviation fuels, under current or future demands.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies on food production of the report by the Royal Society entitled Net zero aviation fuels: resource requirements and environmental impacts, published on 28 February 2023.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The report in question concluded that a significant proportion of the UK’s land would be required for fuel production if crops were used to decarbonise aviation. The UK’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Mandate, which is designed to increase the amount of sustainable fuels used in aviation, prevents the diversion of resources away from food production. The Mandate includes strict sustainability criteria and SAF produced from food, feed or energy crops are not eligible under the scheme.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential cost of building one new runway at Heathrow Airport.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is clear that any expansion scheme will be financed in its entirety by the private sector.
The exact cost of the runway will be determined by the parameters of any scheme brought forward by scheme promoters.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Independent report by the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee entitled DPTAC position on the eligibility criteria for concessionary bus travel, published on 17 August 2022, whether she plans to carry out a review of the eligibility criteria for bus passes for disabled people.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age, currently sixty-six. The ENCTS costs around £700 million annually and, while the Department keeps the scheme under review, any changes to the statutory obligations, such as extending the eligibility criteria, would need to be carefully considered for their impact on the scheme’s financial sustainability.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data she holds on the (a) age, (b) gender, (c) disability status and (d) other demographic make-up of users of micromobility services.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The term micromobility can be defined in different ways. For the purposes of this question, we have taken it to refer to rental e-scooters and cycles.
DfT's Transport and Transport Technology Tracker survey is designed to be representative of the wider population of adults aged 16 and over across England. The most recent published data from Wave 11 (data collection - Dec 2023) of the tracker surveyed 3,622 adults.
Rental e-scooters
The survey found that of 244 respondents who said they had used a rental e-scooter at least annually:
Age: young people are much more likely to use rental e-scooters at least annually (20% of 16-24s vs 1% of those aged 55 or older)
Gender: men are more likely than women to use rental e-scooters at least annually (8% vs. 5%)
Disability status: 5% of people with a health condition that reduces their activity use rental e-scooters at least annually (vs. 7% of those that do not have a health condition that reduces their activity)
Other demographic make up: ethnic minorities are more than three times as likely to use rental e-scooters at least annually (16% vs 5% of white people)
Urban vs rural: urban residents (8%) were more likely than rural residents (3%) to have used a rental e-scooter at least annually.
E-cycles
10% of respondents (355 people) said they have used an e-cycle at least annually. Of these:
Age: young people are more likely to use e-cycles at least annually than older people (13% of 16-24s vs 8% of 55-74 year olds).
Gender: men are more likely to use e-cycles at least annually than women (12% vs 7%).
Other demographic make-up: ethnic minorities are more likely to use e-cycles at least annually compared to white people (16% vs 9%).
Standard Cycles:
36% of respondents (1298 people) said they have used a standard cycle at least annually. Of these:
Age: younger age groups are more likely to use a standard cycle at least annually compared to other age groups (47% of 16-24s vs 36% of 55-64 year olds)
Gender: men are more likely to use a standard cycle at least annually compared to women (44% vs 27%)
Disability status: people without a health condition that reduces their activity are more likely to use a standard cycle at least annually compared to those without (38% vs 29%)
Other demographic make-up: ethnic minorities are more likely to use a standard cycle at least annually compared to white people (41% vs 35%).
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she plans to take to (a) reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants from ships at ports in England and (b) incorporate the requirements of the environmental principles policy statement into maritime policy.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Greening transport, which includes tackling air pollution, is a key priority for the Secretary of State. The UK has consistently supported ambitious international efforts to limit air pollutant emissions from global shipping at the International Maritime Organization, including adopting the North Sea ECA for SOx emissions in 2005 which was expanded to include NOx emissions in 2021. Since April 2010, the UK has also applied equivalent SOx regulations to inland-water vessels and ships at berth in all ports.
The Department considers the environmental principles policy statement across all policy areas, in line with our legal duty.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she plans to take to improve (a) step-free and (b) disabled access at railway stations; whether the Access for All funding scheme will continue; and what her planned timeline is to tackle access issues within the rail network.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are carefully considering the best approach to the Access for All programme. This Government is committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognises the social and economic benefits this brings to communities.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when she plans to publish an updated Road Safety Statement; and whether that update will include a Vision Zero approach.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has announced that it intends to publish a new Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade. Work is already underway on this and further details will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much (a) revenue and (b) capital funding her Department has provided for (i) walking, (ii) cycling, (iii) healthy and safer streets, (iv) disabled access and (v) other ways to support active travel in England in each financial year since 2010-11.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The table below outlines Departmental funding for active travel for the period 2011/12 to 2023/24. It is not possible to disaggregate this into separate amounts for walking, cycling, healthy streets and so forth. Comparable data for 2010/11 is unavailable. The figures do not include funding from wider sources within the Department such as the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) or the Levelling Up Fund.
Year | Capital (£ million) | Revenue (£ million) | Combined* (£ million) |
2011-12 | 39 | 64 | 54 |
2012-13 | 72 | 59 | 54 |
2013-14 | 131 | 63 | 54 |
2014-15 | 50 | 54 | 54 |
2015-16 | 74 | 57 | 54 |
2016-17 | 43 | 44 | 0 |
2017-18 | 72 | 30 | 0 |
2018-19 | 29 | 36 | 0 |
2019-20 | 3 | 37 | 0 |
2020-21 | 187 | 118 | 0 |
2021-22 | 205 | 74 | 0 |
2022-23 | 200 | 73 | 0 |
2023-24 | 54 | 58 | 0 |
*Local Sustainable Transport Fund including wider sustainable transport spend.