Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending regulations to require that cycle helmets be worn when hiring an e-bike.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department looked carefully at the case for making helmet-wearing mandatory for all cyclists in a comprehensive Cycling and Walking Safety Review in 2018. The review is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/governments-response-to-the-cycling-walking-investment-strategy-safety-review.
The review concluded that helmets should continue to be strongly recommended for people who cycle, but that they should remain a matter of personal choice rather than becoming a legal requirement. This is because the benefits of mandating cycle helmets would be likely to be outweighed by putting some people off cycling, thereby reducing the wider health and environmental benefits. The review did not specifically look at the case for mandating helmets only for those who hire e-cycles; but the Department expects the arguments for and against would be similar to the arguments for non-e-bikes.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department still plans to provide funding for (a) walking and (b) cycling routes in Bedlington in the context of the failure to agree a deal to build an electric vehicle gigafactory in Cambois.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
In January 2023, as part of the second round of the Levelling Up Fund, we announced that £14.7 million was awarded to Northumberland County Council for two new high-quality cycling and pedestrian routes in Hexham and Bedlington.
The Government will continue to work with stakeholders across Northumberland to deliver long term support to the area, including working with Northumberland County Council.
The National Planning Policy Framework expects strategic policy-making authorities to follow the standard method for assessing local housing need. The standard method does not dictate where homes should go.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of requiring all (a) e-bikes and (b) e-scooters to be registered to an owner.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There is already legislation in place that governs the use of e-scooters on public land. E-scooters meet the definition of a ‘motor vehicle’ under the Road Traffic Act 1988. Therefore, as well as having to be registered, taxed, and insured, they must meet all other legal requirements of a motor vehicle to be used on the road. By their design, e-scooters complying with the wide range of requirements is difficult to achieve. Consequentially, most private e-scooters are illegal to use on the road, cycle lanes or pavements (i.e. otherwise than on private land), and rental e-scooters can only be used in rental e-scooter trial area.
The Department considered the potential advantages and disadvantages of a mandatory registration and licensing system for cycle ownership as part of a comprehensive cycling and walking safety review in 2018. This found that the cost and complexity of such a system would outweigh the benefits, and that restricting people’s ability to cycle in this way would mean that many would be likely to choose other modes of transport instead, with negative impacts for congestion, pollution, and health. However all policies are kept under review.
If e-cycles exceed the criteria in the Electrically Pedal Assisted Cycles Regulations (1983), then, among other criteria limits power and speed, they are also classed as motor vehicles, requiring tax, insurance, and similar requirements.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will (a) make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of crime levels in (i) Preston and (ii) Lancashire and (b) take steps to develop a plan to reduce bicycle theft in those areas.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government recognises the impact acquisitive crime can have on individuals and communities. The 2021 Beating Crime Plan, sets out the Government’s strategy for cutting crime, protecting the law-abiding majority and making neighbourhoods safe. The plan can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1015382/Crime-plan-v10.pdf.
Since 2010, overall crime excluding fraud and computer misuse is down by 55%, and we welcome the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales data, which shows that bicycle theft is also down 55% when comparing findings from the year ending September 2023 with the year ending March 2010.
A key part of making acquisitive crime less attractive to criminals is making stolen goods harder to sell on. That is why we are working closely with policing and academic leads to examine what more can be done to tackle the disposal markets for stolen goods and reduce the profit from acquisitive crime.
This Government also established the Safer Streets Fund. Since its inception in 2020, we have invested over £150 million to deliver interventions across England and Wales helping to tackle and prevent violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime. This includes investing just over £3.4 million in Lancashire, funding a range of initiatives such as CCTV and street lighting, improvements to home security measures and youth engagement and educational programmes.
The Home Office is working closely with the British Transport Police (BTP), the national lead for cycle theft, to tackle the theft of bicycles. The BTP has launched the ‘double lock it’ campaign with police forces and organisations, providing advice to owners on how to protect their bicycles: https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/campaigns/double-lock-it/.
The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Cycling and Walking Plan for England, also sets out initiatives to combat cycle theft, including encouraging retailers to number the bicycles they sell and offer customers the opportunity to register their bicycle on a database at the point of sale. The Plan is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-and-walking-plan-for-england.
The BTP-led National Cycle Crime Group, working with DfT, have set up Cycle Crime Reduction Partnerships across the country to coordinate regional enforcement activity to disrupt organised cycle theft.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of findings in SusTrans' Walking and Cycling Index 2023, published in March 2024, relating to people's opinions on relative funding for (a) road building schemes and (b) walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport options.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has noted the findings in this report and agrees that it is important that people should be able to choose how they make their everyday journeys. The Government is investing around £3 billion over the current Parliament in schemes to enable more people to choose walking, wheeling and cycling, which is more than any previous Government has invested. The Government also recognises the importance of local bus services and has announced over £4.5 billion to support and improve bus services in England outside London since 2020.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of national planning policy framework for active travel.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The National Planning Policy Framework already states that planning policies should “provide for attractive and well-designed walking and cycling networks with supporting facilities which are designed to promote active travel”.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department plans to provide to local authorities for active travel plans in the (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport is currently providing £70 million of dedicated funding to local authorities in 2023-24, for developing and delivering local infrastructure schemes and to boost capability and enable higher levels of walking and cycling. Funding for local authorities in 2024-25 is subject to final Departmental business planning decisions.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to enforce pedestrian priority at pedestrian crossing points without traffic control measures as set out in the update to the Highway Code in January 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Highway Code changes to improve road safety for people walking, cycling, and riding horses aim to initiate a positive shift in road user behaviour, by making road users aware of their responsibility to use roads safely and reduce the danger they may pose to others.
Enforcement of the law is a matter for the police, who will decide on the evidence of each individual case, whether an offence has been committed and the appropriate action to take.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has provided to support (a) cycling and (b) walking activities in (i) Dewsbury constituency and (ii) West Yorkshire in the last 12 months.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In the last 12 months, Active Travel England has awarded West Yorkshire Combined Authority £2,530,967 of revenue funding through the Capability Fund, and £17,430,668 of capital funding through the fourth tranche of the Active Travel Fund. This funding has been provided to support active travel as a whole in the region and is not split between walking and cycling. West Yorkshire Combined Authority decides on how this funding is allocated locally.
Annual payments are also made to West Yorkshire Combined Authority for Levelling Up Fund and City Regional Sustainable Transport Settlement Schemes. This includes a £330,000 scheme for a Dewsbury-Batley-Chidswell bus, cycling and walking corridor.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle bike thefts in (a) London and (b) Havering.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Crime Survey England and Wales latest findings shows bicycle theft is down 54% in year ending June 2023, compared with year ending March 2010.
In 2020 the Government published Gear Change – a bold vision for cycling and walking. Theme 4 of Gear Change includes various initiatives to reduce cycle theft.
Through National Cycle Crime Group, working with Department for Transport, Cycle Crime Reduction Partnerships have been set up across the country to coordinate regional enforcement activity to disrupt organised cycle theft and raise awareness of better security. Partnerships have been established in in Birmingham, Manchester, Scotland, Oxford, Cambridge, and Wales, with more currently being established in London.
British Transport Police have also launched the ‘double lock it’ campaign with police forces and organisations, providing advice to owners to help better protect their bicycles. Further information on the campaign and bicycle locks can be found here: https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/campaigns/double-lock-it/.