Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing blue badge holders to temporarily use an expired badge while its renewal is being processed.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has no plans to allow the temporary use of an expired Blue Badge. It is an offence to use an expired badge which should be returned to the issuing local authority.
Allowing the use of expired badges would undermine the effective enforcement of the scheme.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve the provision of bus services in (a) Ashford constituency and (b) Kent.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government introduced the Bus Services (No.2) Bill on 17 December as part of its ambitious plan for bus reform. The Bill puts the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders and is intended to ensure bus services reflect the needs of the communities that rely on them right across England, including in Kent. The government has committed to increasing accountability by including a measure on socially necessary services so that local authorities and bus operators have to have regard for alternatives to changing or cancelling services.
In addition, the government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country. Kent County Council has been allocated over £23 million of this funding. Local authorities can use this funding to introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had recent discussions with the Highways Agency on increasing the height of the railings on the A28 overbridge over the M20 between junctions 9 and 10.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There have not been recent discussions between the Secretary of State and National Highways on increasing the height of the railings on the A28 overbridge over the M20 between junctions 9 and 10. Both the Department and National Highways take the issue of safety very seriously and are committed to improving the Strategic Road Network (SRN) to provide a safer network. The raising of bridge parapets (safety barriers/railings along the edge of bridges) is not always a straightforward piece of work and can typically require complete replacement of the bridge structure. National Highways usually undertakes this type of work on a priority basis across the whole of the SRN.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of ensuring that all public-facing transport staff participate in mandatory autism awareness and sensitivity training.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government wants to focus on how transport can be designed, built and operated to better serve the people who use it – delivering on our pledge to put people at the heart of what we do on transport and enabling them to live healthy, fulfilling lives without barriers to opportunity.
The Government is committed to delivering a transport network which allows disabled people, including those with less visible impairments, such as autism, to travel easily and confidently, with dignity and without extra cost.
Having clear accountability and appropriately trained staff acting to support passengers, whether disabled or not, to make the journeys they want and need to make is essential. To support this, many staff working on our public transport network already undertake disability awareness training.
The Government expects Local Authorities and Transport Operators to lead this process and we want to empower them to do this. That is why we are bringing forward the Bus Services (No.2) Bill, and undertaking wider reform on our railway, including the establishment of Great British Railways with a customer-focused culture.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2024 to Question 21357 on Large Goods Vehicles: Concrete, what her Department's planned timetable is for publishing its findings.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department will publish its findings shortly.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of statutory safeguard training for (a) private hire and (b) taxi drivers under the Police and Crime Act 2017.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Policing and Crime Act 2017 enables the Secretary of State for Transport to issue statutory guidance to licensing authorities on exercising their taxi and private hire vehicle licensing functions to protect children and vulnerable adults. Statutory guidance was published in 2020 under these powers. This means that all licensing authorities should provide safeguarding advice and guidance to the sector and should require all taxi and private hire vehicle drivers to undertake safeguarding training. Licensing authorities are responsible for deciding the content and format of such training.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve bus services for rural communities in Kent.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Good local bus services are an essential part of prosperous and sustainable communities. As announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the government will introduce a Buses Bill later this parliamentary session, which will put decision-making into the hands of local leaders, including in Kent and other rural areas right across England. This will allow local areas to determine how best to design their bus services so that they have control over routes and schedules.
The government has also committed to increasing accountability by providing safeguards over local networks across the country and empowering local transport authorities through reforms to bus funding.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help reduce driving test waiting times in Ashford constituency.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA’s) main priority is to reduce car practical driving test waiting times, whilst upholding road safety standards.
DVSA continues to take measures to increase test availability. These include the recruitment of driving examiners (DEs), conducting tests outside regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays and buying back annual leave from DEs.
DVSA currently employs 7.33 full-time equivalent DEs at Ashford, Canterbury and Folkestone driving test centres (DTCs). It has made offers of employment to a further eight potential new DEs who, if successful in training, will join these DTCs.
In total DVSA has made offers to 15 potential new DEs in Kent. DVSA launched its latest recruitment campaign in September 2024. From this campaign DVSA aims to recruit a further eight DEs in the Kent area.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that potholes are fixed promptly in Ashford constituency.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local road network. Kent County Council is the local highway authority for the Ashford constituency, and it is therefore responsible for the maintenance of its local road network. Kent County Council will receive £38.3 million from this Department during 2024/25 to help it carry out its local highway maintenance responsibilities: it is up to it to decide how that funding is used. For England as a whole, the Government has a commitment to enable local highway authorities to fix up to a million more potholes a year.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the impact of the EU Entry/Exit System on road haulage.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Department for Transport Ministers and officials regularly meet colleagues from the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and FCDO to discuss the impacts of the EU Entry/Exit System on travel between the UK and the Schengen Area, including the impacts on freight. We are intensifying these discussions with our ministerial colleagues across government as we approach the implementation date.