The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to respond to the letter from the Leader of Gateshead Council of 25 June 2015 on upgrading the A1 between the Birtley and Coal House interchanges.
Andrew Jones
A reply was sent on 22 July 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October to Question 12230, if he will provide a breakdown by English region of the figures provided in the first table contained in that Answer under the headings (a) his Department’s spend per head and (b) total spend per head.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The table below details spend per head per region on cycling. These figures are made up of the following Government funded programmes: Cycle-Rail, Cycle Safety, Linking Communities, Cycle Ambition Cities, Cycle Ambition National Parks and the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.. The figures for total funding consist of DfT funding plus matched funding. Matched funding comes from a range of public and private sources, for example local authority budgets, private partnerships or third party grants.
We do not hold a regional breakdown for the £4.8m spent in 2013/14 by the Highways Agency. The table also does not include the £11m a year spent on Bikeability cycle training, as we do not hold a regional breakdown of this funding. These funding streams have therefore been excluded from the below calculations. Further, as we are still in financial year 2015/16 we cannot confirm exact expenditure and we have therefore excluded the 2015/16 financial year from the figures.
|
Region |
Average spend per head to nearest £ |
|||||
|
|
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
||
|
East Midlands |
DfT spend |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
Total spend |
3 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
||
|
East of England |
DfT spend |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
Total spend |
3 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
||
|
North East |
DfT spend |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
Total spend |
5 |
6 |
8 |
7 |
||
|
North West |
DfT spend |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
Total spend |
4 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
||
|
South East |
DfT spend |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
Total spend |
4 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
||
|
South West |
DfT spend |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
Total spend |
7 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
||
|
West Midlands |
DfT spend |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
|
|
Total spend |
4 |
4 |
6 |
6 |
||
|
Yorkshire & Humber |
DfT spend |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
|
|
Total spend |
4 |
5 |
7 |
7 |
||
|
London |
Total spend |
2 |
3 |
9 |
13 |
|
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 7 of his Department’s publication, Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) Information pack and Conditions of Eligibility, how much his Department has spent on (a) the eight per cent ITSO smartcard BSOG supplement and (b) the two per cent Automatic Vehicle Location BSOG supplement in each year from 2010-11 to 2014-15; and what his Department’s projected expenditure is in 2015-16 on those items.
Andrew Jones
This information is set out in the table below.
£ million
|
Year |
Smartcard |
Automatic Vehicle Location |
|
2010/11 |
1.365 |
0.592 |
|
2011/12 |
9.501 |
1.662 |
|
2012/13 |
15.664 |
4.296 |
|
2013/14 |
16.247 |
4.109 |
|
2014/15 |
16.169 |
4.138 |
Since 2010, these two supplements have helped lead to real benefits for passengers. Over 86% of buses in England outside London are now smart-equipped and 93% of buses outside London now have automatic vehicle location equipment compared to 45% in 2009-10.
At this stage it is too early to estimate the likely payments for 2015/16.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Chief Executive of Network Rail’s letter to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee of 19 October 2015, what the component cost headings of Network Rail’s revised £2.5 billion to £2.8 billion cost estimate for Great Western Main Line electrification are.
Claire Perry
As the Department’s Permanent Secretary, Philip Rutnam, stated at the Public Accounts Committee of 21 October 2015, the estimate provided by Mr Carne has not yet been subject to detailed scrutiny, either by the Department or the Office of Road and Regulation(ORR). We expect to receive details of the estimate as part of the Hendy Review which will cover the entire 2014-2019 enhancements portfolio. This is expected later in the Autumn and it would be premature to comment on costs before the report is finalised.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2015 to Question 12187, which organisations were represented at the High Level Cycling Group’s meeting on 13 July 2015.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Representatives from the following organisations attended the High Level Cycling Group’s meeting on 13 July 2015:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment the Government has made of the financial effect on consumers of the requirement for drivers to be insured at all times under the Road Safety Act 2006.
Andrew Jones
Since the introduction of the Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) scheme, the level of uninsured driving has been reduced from 1.4 million vehicles at the end of 2010 to 1.0 million at the end of 2014, a 29% reduction. CIE has promoted positive changes in vehicle keeper behaviour and contributes significantly to making our roads safer and in helping keep down insurance premiums for the honest motorist.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans for the electrification of the Great Western Mainline to be completed.
Claire Perry
The Secretary of State announced in June that Sir Peter Hendy, the new Chair of Network Rail, would develop proposals for how the rail upgrade programme, including the Great Western Mainline, will be carried out. He will report to the Secretary of State later in the autumn and it would be premature to speculate on his conclusions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much has been spent by his Department on franchising negotiations since 2010.
Claire Perry
Since 2013, and the setting up of Rail Executive Passenger Services, the Department has separated out the cost of individual Franchise Competitions and Direct Awards. Prior to 2013 such costs are merged within the general costs of running the franchised passenger services and we are unable to disaggregate them from the general costs.
The cost of re-franchising projects since the re-launch of the Franchising Programme in Spring 2013 is £41.4 million. This represents the actual consultancy and non-pay staff costs for the duration of the completed competitions and Direct Awards. This figure includes costs for ongoing competitions and Direct Awards up to and including the end of September.
Franchise competitions are not the result of negotiation, but of open competition. The benefits these competitions bring to the passenger far outweigh the cost to the Department. I also note that the franchising system returned £1.15billion to the taxpayer in financial years 2014/15, and is expected to return a similar amount in 2015/16.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many complaints by passengers were received by Network Rail in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014 and (f) 2015.
Claire Perry
Network Rail was reclassified as an arm’s-length public sector body on 1 September 2014 and the collation of statistics of annual complaints received remains an operational matter for the company.
Network Rail advises that its customer relationship management system focusses on providing solutions to a range of customer service requests, the majority of which are received from line-side residents rather than passengers. Network Rail’s system does not focus specifically on logging the annual number of passenger complaints.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans for the South East Flexible Ticketing scheme to be delivered.
Claire Perry
Smart ticketing was taken forward by the Coalition Government after 2010. Five train operators, serving 73% of all rail season ticket holders in the South East, have now signed up to the South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) programme.
Smart season tickets are already available to customers on Govia Thameslink Railway and c2c. South West Trains and Abellio Greater Anglia plan to introduce smart seasons on their services in January 2016; Southeastern will follow at the end of 2016.
A new SEFT central back office, providing critical IT infrastructure and data processing capability, underwent testing in August 2015. This will enable train operators to consider a range of new products and services including automatic delay repay, flexible season tickets and loyalty schemes, and also to extend smart ticketing across a range of transport modes including rail, trams and buses.
In September 2015, Birmingham New Street station reopened with smart-enabled ticket barriers supported by the central back office.
On current plans, the South East Flexible Ticketing programme will complete in 2018.