Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department plans to provide to repair potholes on public highways in Bournemouth East constituency in the next 12 months.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Bournemouth East constituency is in the Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (BCP) Council local authority area.
The next twelve months straddle two financial years, and details for each financial year are set out in the table below. In total over these two financial years the Government is providing around £11.6 million to BCP Council towards the maintenance of the local highway network in their area.
Table 1: funding allocations for Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (BCP) Council
| Highways Maintenance Block (HMB) | Potholes Fund | Budget 2023 Uplift | Uplift arising from HS2 Euston savings | Total |
2023/24 | 2,659,000 | 2,127,000 | 850,800 | 604,000 | £6,240,800 |
2024/25 | 2,659,000 | 2,127,000 | n/a | 604,000 | £5,390,000 |
The funding increases announced in Budget 2023 and as part of the Network North programme mean that in 2023/24 BCP is receiving around 30% more than it was in 2022/23. Funding allocations can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the use of sustainable fuel in the aviation sector.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is introducing world leading measures to support the development, production, and use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the UK. We have confirmed that a SAF mandate will be introduced in 2025, driving the demand for SAF by requiring at least 10% (around 1.5 billion litres) of jet fuel to be made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030. In November we supported Virgin Atlantic to deliver the world’s first 100% SAF transatlantic flight on a commercial aircraft, with up to £1 million of grant funding.
To secure SAF supply and meet our aim of having 5 plants under construction by 2025, we are kickstarting a domestic SAF industry by allocating over £135m for UK SAF production facilities through the Advanced Fuels Fund. To support investment in SAF we have also committed to implement a revenue certainty mechanism for SAF production.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to make electric vehicles accessible to consumers in (a) Bournemouth East constituency and (b) the South West.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department is supporting local authorities, such as Bournemouth, to install charging infrastructure through its £381 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund. Through LEVI, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole have seen £1,447,000 of capital funding and £373,000 of capability funding.
Across the South West region, local authorities have been allocated £40,102,000 capital funding and £5,440,000 capability funding through the LEVI Fund. In addition, local authorities in the South West have received £2,364,787 through the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS).
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the maximum penalty charge available to local authorities outside London.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The issue of penalties to support activities such as parking enforcement is complex and identifying the right balance of deterrent and fairness is not straightforward. Changing the penalty levels would need to be evidence-led, requiring consultation and amendments to secondary legislation. To date, evidence around the effectiveness of current penalty levels has been largely anecdotal.
The Department is aware that sector representatives are undertaking research into this issue in relation to parking penalties, and we look forward to reviewing the findings in due course. We have no current plans to raise penalty charge levels.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to agree to the business case to upgrade Pokesdown station in Bournemouth East constituency.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
My Officials have approved the plans for improvements at Pokesdown for Boscombe station and tenders to carry out the detailed design work on the lifts are in the process of being reviewed by Network Rail. There will be a further tendering exercise following on from this to secure an accurate cost for construction. Stakeholders have been kept informed of progress via a public meeting in September and will be kept regularly updated as the scheme progresses.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding has been allocated for improvements to Pokesdown station in Bournemouth East constituency.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
There is a total of £5.7 million available to complete the improvements project at Pokesdown for Boscombe station which is provided by a combination of funding from the Department, Network Rail and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. It should also be made clear that Network Rail funding is for renewals such as the bridge and canopy painting/repairs, not specifically the lifts or other station improvements.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the expected timescale for self-driving vehicles to be permitted on roads.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We expect self-driving vehicles to be permitted on the roads in two ways:
(1) commercially available self-driving systems, that can drive in certain circumstances and which require a responsible human in the vehicle (such as those compliant with the Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS) Regulation), will be deployed when a manufacturer brings a vehicle to market and it is approved; and
(2) self-driving passenger transport and logistics vehicles are also being trialled on the roads currently, and we anticipate progress towards the first deployment over the next 5 years.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on consultancy fees in each year since 2017.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Expenditure figures are available in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts, which are available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dft-annual-reports-and-accounts.
We are in the process of producing the Department’s Annual Report which will be published in July, this will include our audited consultancy spend for 2021-22.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the aviation sector is (a) innovative and (b) sustainable.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Government’s vision is for the UK to be a world leader in innovative aviation technology that has a transformative effect on the movement of people and goods. The Government is providing £125m, matched by £175m from industry, of support for Innovate UK’s Future Flight Challenge. The Challenge seeks to support the demonstration in the UK of Unmanned, Advanced Air Mobility and sub-regional electric and hydrogen air services.
The Government is also supporting a variety of innovative technology, fuel and market-based measures to address aviation emissions and ensure that the sector is sustainable and achieves net zero by 2050.
In July 2021, we published the Jet Zero Consultation which sets out our vision for the aviation sector to reach net zero by 2050, focussing on the rapid development of technologies in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel and maximises the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring for the UK. We are carefully considering consultation responses, alongside wider government policy and the very latest technological developments in the development of the final Jet Zero Strategy, which we are aiming to publish later this year.
Over the next three years, we are providing £685m funding to the Aerospace Technology Institute Programme to support the development of new and zero-carbon emission aircraft technology, and £180m funding to accelerate the commercialisation of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants and fuel testing in the UK.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has taken steps to progress the upgrade to Boscombe Railway Station.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Department for Transport is working closely with South Western Railway, Network Rail and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council to pursue improvements for passengers at Pokesdown for Boscombe station. The Department will provide an update at the conclusion of the ongoing feasibility work.