Asked by: Simon Hart (Conservative - Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the new Old Oak Common station will provide an efficient interchange for passengers travelling between Wales and the north of the UK; what organisations will operate those connections; and what the frequency of those connections will be.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The HS2 Development Agreement sets out the Sponsor’s Requirements for the HS2 scheme. At Old Oak Common, this includes interchange facilities with the Great Western Main Line and Crossrail services.
Our current indicative train service specification that has informed the design of Old Oak Common station assumes that all Great Western franchise and Heathrow Express services will stop at Old Oak Common. This will enable passengers from Wales and other destinations currently served by Paddington bound trains to interchange with HS2 services to the midlands and north of the UK. The frequency of connections is an operational matter that will be determined nearer the time, but we would expect passengers and other stakeholders to be consulted on material changes to future franchise service patterns.
Asked by: Simon Hart (Conservative - Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve safety for horses and riders on roads.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Rule 215 of The Highway code gives specific advice on approaching and overtaking horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles safely and with consideration. The theory test contains questions about how drivers should interact with horse riders and the hazard perception test includes a number of clips where horse riders are the hazard.
The “Have Some Horse Sense on the road campaign was launched as part of the THINK! Road Safety Campaign and encouraged drivers to approach horses slowly and give them a wide berth when overtaking. This has been supplemented more recently by the THINK! Rural Roads campaign which reminds drivers to take particular care when driving along country roads.
Asked by: Simon Hart (Conservative - Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether there are plans for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to accept Army Personnel Centre records of driver qualifications as proof of army personnel having passed driving tests.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Legislation provides, under delegated authority, for military personnel to carry out driving tests. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) following a notification from the Military of Defence records the test pass and applies the new entitlement to the driving record. Letters from the Army Personnel Centre are also accepted, provided it confirms that the driver has passed an appropriate driving test that allows them to drive on public roads.
Asked by: Simon Hart (Conservative - Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance his Department has issued on the interpretation of nocturnal hypoglycaemic events for the purposes of EU Directive 2009/112/EC and 2009/113/EC; how that guidance differs from that issued for daytime hypoglycaemic events; and what assessment he has made of the evidential basis for those guidelines.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency provides guidance on hypoglycaemia to all drivers who notify they have insulin treated diabetes. Advice is also available on gov.uk.
Drivers who experience recurrent episodes of severe hypoglycaemia cannot be issued with a licence. Severe hypoglycaemia is defined as needing the assistance of a third party to treat the episode. Recurrent severe hypoglycaemia is more than one episode of severe hypoglycaemia in 12 months. These standards are specified in the Third European Union Directive on driving licences, which does not distinguish between events while a person is awake or asleep. The European Commission has confirmed that hypoglycaemia occurring at night cannot be discounted when considering the number of occurrences of severe hypoglycaemia in 12 months.
The guidelines are based on standards determined by experts from across the European Union and agreed by the Secretary of State for Transport's Honorary Medical Advisory Panel on Driving and Diabetes Mellitus.