Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Thursday 28th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

This Government and our decisions are having a major impact. I do not need to take any lectures or lessons from the Labour party, which had a failed aviation strategy, no rail strategy at all and made absolutely no investment on the roads compared with what we are putting in. Frankly, the brass neck of it is unbelievable. We are getting on with building our country for the future in a way that the previous Government never did. We are investing more and we will do more. I look forward to hearing him congratulate us when we do.

[Mr Speaker]

I hear the Secretary of State’s message but we have a lot of questions to get through.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

6. What steps her Department is taking to improve cycling safety.

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We now come to question 8— [Interruption.]—or even 9.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

9. What steps she is taking to support motorists and the haulage industry; and if she will make a statement.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Justine Greening)]

I have taken a number of steps to reduce motorists’ costs. We are working with the Ministry of Justice to tackle the cost of insurance fraud, including fraudulent whiplash claims. We are working with the fuel industry to ensure the transparency of fuel costs and that wholesale price reductions are passed on. We have halved the tolls on the Humber bridge. We are working with the Motorists Forum on improving garage experiences for consumers, and as well as freezing fees for MOTs, driving tests and licensing, in the logistics growth review we supported £1 billion of further investment to improve the capacity and resilience of the strategic roads network.

[Mr Speaker]

We knew it would be worth waiting for.

[Robert Halfon]

Thousands of hard-pressed motorists, and me, are so excited that the Government cut fuel duty this week that I lost my train of thought as another Labour tax rise was cancelled.

I thank the Secretary of State for her outspoken support and for the pressure she has put on oil companies to bear their share of responsibility for the high price of petrol and diesel at the pumps. Will she carry on putting that pressure on oil companies to ease the pressures on motorists?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

It is still T2, but we are grateful to the hon. Gentleman. Mr Sheerman has withdrawn his question T1.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Justine Greening)]

It has been a busy couple of months in the Department for Transport. We have announced our plans to work with petrol retailers to get a better deal for motorists at the pump. We have helped local authorities to unlock economic growth with our £266 million local sustainable transport fund announcement. We have set out the next steps for attracting greater investment in the strategic road network, issuing rail franchise consultations on the inter-city east coast and south-eastern franchises. With other Government Departments, we are working extremely hard to put in place the final planning and preparations to make sure that we host a fantastic Olympic and Paralympic games this summer.

--- Later in debate ---

The Minister for Women and Equalities was asked—

[Mr Speaker]

Gerry Sutcliffe? Not here.

[Gemma Doyle (West Dunbartonshire) (Lab/Co-op)]

2. What assessment she has made of the cumulative effect of welfare reform legislation on disabled people.