Tag: Lilian Greenwood

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 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps (a) his Department and (b) the DVLA is taking to increase the number of seizures of uninsured vehicles.

Andrew Jones

Since 2011 the Government has had in place an insurance and compliance strategy, namely the Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) scheme operated by DVLA and the Motor Insurers Bureau, which aims to reduce the level of uninsured driving.

It is estimated that CIE has already helped reduce levels of uninsured driving from 1.4 million in 2010 to 1 million vehicles now.

The police have powers under Section 165A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to seize a vehicle that is being used on a public road without motor insurance. How police enforce the law is an operational matter for their discretion.

The table below shows the number of vehicles seized by the police for driving without insurance.

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
vehicles seized	180,000	150,000	140,000	137,000	135,000	116,000	121,000

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 37807, on Thameslink railway line: rolling stock, whether he expects the Class 700 Thameslink rolling stock to come into revenue-earning service in 2016.

Claire Perry

The new Class 700 Thameslink trains are expected to enter into revenue earning service shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Answer of 13 July 2011 to Question 65970, on the Thameslink Railway Line, whether the Economic Response Task Force referred to in that Answer produced a report.

Anna Soubry

The Derby Economic Task Force was wound up in July 2012. While a report was not produced, the Derby Economic Task Force completed a programme of work to support Derby during that period of uncertainty.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to respond to his Department’s consultation on the Hendy Report, published in January 2016.

Paul Maynard

Following the conclusion of my Department’s consultation, the Secretary of State has accepted the report by Sir Peter Hendy on the replanning of Network Rail’s Investment Programme.

No-one has put forward a better overall plan for how to deliver the programme than the plan that Sir Peter has proposed.

The programme of railway upgrades will continue to be subject to ongoing assessment and investment decisions to ensure that maximum value is derived for passengers and taxpayers

A report summarising the responses made to the consultation will be published later in the year and a copy will be placed in both libraries of the house.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons Network Rail has not yet published a timetable to close 73 dangerous level crossings on the East Cost Main Line; and what recent discussions he has had with Network Rail over the East Coast Main Line level crossing closure programme.

Claire Perry

Network Rail has already closed over 900 level crossings since 2009 and the Department is supporting this work through a dedicated £109 million level crossing risk reduction fund during 2014-19. There are currently around 6,200 level crossings remaining on the main line network. Network Rail’s feasibility study, completed in June 2015, has identified preferred options for the closure of all 73 level crossings on the East Coast Main Line.

The Secretary of State has not had any recent discussions with Network Rail on this matter since the programme is an operational issue for the company.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20639, whether franchise agreements for future franchises within the South East Flexible Ticketing geographical area will include an obligation for operators to subscribe to that programme.

Claire Perry

We are keen that operators significantly increase the uptake of smart ticketing across all franchises and we have challenged the industry to move forward with the development of new ticketing technologies. We are working with the Rail Delivery Group to work out what would need to be specified in franchises, but it is too early to say what those specifications could look like.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what annual fee his Department will pay to (a) Ernst and Young in the UK, (b) Arup and (c) Interfleet for their advice to him on fulfilling his duties under Section 30 of the Railways Act 1993; and for what period those companies are contracted to provide him such advice.

Claire Perry

Following a successful procurement competition using the new STAR (Specialist Technical Advice for Rail) Framework Agreement, the Department has appointed a partnership comprising Arup, SNC-Lavalin Transport Advisory (InterFleet), and EY to provide services to support the Secretary of State in connection with his duties under Section 30 of the Railways Act.

The contract is for 2 years and commenced in November 2015. It has an optional extension of 12 months which is exercisable at the Department’s discretion. The fees payable to the partnership are capped at £616k (excluding VAT) for the two years of the contract. In addition to core contractual commitments, further fees are payable at agreed daily rates for other services which include, but are not limited to, the full mobilisation of a public sector train operator.

Following the successful award of the East Coast franchise to Virgin East Coast last year, it was not a good use of taxpayers’ money to maintain DoR’s full corporate structure on a ‘just in case’ basis. We have scaled back Directly Operated Railways operations and brought it in-house with the Department for Transport.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department spent on advertising to raise awareness of the dangers of drug driving in 2014-15.

Andrew Jones

In 2014-15 the Department’s THINK! Drug Drive campaign supported the drug drive legislation change by informing an ‘all adult’ audience about the new law and its consequences using PR and local press ads. In addition, we targeted those most likely to drug drive (young males aged 17-34) to challenge and deter them from drug driving, using radio, digital display, video on demand and outdoor advertising.

The total spent on advertising was £1.4m.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 28 November 2014 to Question 215333, what amount was paid to Transport for London in relation to the decision to raise Transport for London rail fares by the retail price index in January 2015.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Department for Transport compensated Transport for London (TfL) in full for the projected impact on their revenues of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s September 2014 announcement on regulated rail fares. The Department did this by paying TfL an additional £43 million, spread over two financial years (£7m in 2014/15, and £36m in 2015/16), by means of a variation to their core grant (the GLA transport grant, paid under section 101 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999). This followed consultation with HM Treasury and with the Greater London Authority.