Blog

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding is allocated to motorcycling safety in his Department’s budget for the current year.

Andrew Jones

Motorcycling safety is embedded within different areas including wider road safety policy, international vehicle standards and the THINK! road safety campaigns. As such there is not a separate budget allocation.

A significant role is also played by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, which oversees the training and testing of motorcyclists.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether revenue risk on the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise will be borne by the franchisee or the public purse in the event of industrial action.

Claire Perry

The Govia Thameslink Railway franchise was let on the basis that farebox revenue belongs to the Department, therefore any risk and opportunity in relation to passenger revenue resides with the Department, including in the event of strike action.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what changes his Department has made to Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd’s performance benchmarks under Schedule 7.1 of the Thameslink Southern and Great Northern franchise agreement since that agreement was signed.

Claire Perry

The Franchise Agreement sets out the circumstances which entitle a revision to the Govia Thameslink Railway Schedule 7.1 benchmarks. A predefined contractual change has occurred which has required changes to the Cancellation and TOC Minute Delay benchmarks.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36052, on diesel vehicles: exhaust emissions, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of a pre-Euro 4 diesel scrappage scheme; how many vehicles in the UK were estimated to have been potentially eligible for a claim under such a scheme; and whether a benefit-cost ratio was calculated for that proposal.

Andrew Jones

Improving the UK’s air quality is a priority for this Government; we want the UK to have the best natural environment, and clean air is an essential part of this ambition.

The Government’s National Air Quality Plan, published on 17 December 2015, sets out a comprehensive approach to improving UK air quality. A key measure of this is the introduction of new Clean Air Zones in five UK cities (Birmingham, Leeds, Southampton, Nottingham and Derby), along with the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London. The Plan will tackle the most polluting vehicles in air pollution hotspots, and will enable us to reach compliance with legal limit values as quickly as possible.

A national scrappage scheme for diesel cars was considered, which included a high-level cost estimate looking at offering grants for scrappage of the dirtiest vehicles.

It was found that even if only offering the scheme to pre-Euro 4 diesel cars only, the costs ran into the billions and impact on emissions was marginal.

This would have minimal impact on compliance with legal limit values for air quality in 2020. It is estimated that 400,000 pre euro 4 diesel cars will remain in the national fleet by this time.

As the costs of a scrappage were considered prohibitively expensive this option was judged an ineffective use of resource, and further analysis was not carried out.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 12 May to Question 36842, on railways: franchises, whether the partnership referred to in that Answer has provided his Department with advice on mobilisation plans for franchises other than the Cross Country franchise since 1 November 2015.

Claire Perry

The Partnership reviewed the work undertaken by Directly Operated Railways (DOR) in connection with the Direct Awards programme as part of the initial phase of their contract between November and December 2015. This focused on the work done by DOR on the Cross Country Franchise but also included reviewing historic mobilisation plans prepared by DOR for other franchises.

The partnership are not currently advising on any mobilisation plans other than that for the Cross Country Franchise.