Railways: Crime
Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many incidents of crime at each rail station in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Solihull constituency were reported in each of the last five years. [47994]
Mrs Villiers: This information is not held by the Department for Transport, but by the British Transport Police who can be contacted at:
25 Camden Road
London
NW1 9LN
or by e-mail at:
parliament@btp.pnn.police.uk
PACTS comments: While it may be the case that there have been a number of incidents of crime at these rail stations, the perception of the number of incidents may be just as significant to consider as the reality. During preliminary research for our next project ‘Safer Mobility for an Ageing Population’, we have found a reoccurring problem of older transport users lacking confidence to use public or active transport. Among other reasons, this can be due to a fear of crime. We will be looking into these issues in detail in our report.
Cycling England: Finance
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the budget for Cycling England (a) was in (i) 2009-10 and (ii) 2010-11 and (b) will be for (A) 2011-12, (B) 2012-13, (C) 2013-14 and (D) 2014-15. [46649]
Norman Baker: The information requested is as follows:
(a) Cycling England’s budget in:
(i) 2009-10 was £60 million;
(ii) 2010-11 was £58 million.
(b) Cycling England will cease to exist on 31 March 2011 and therefore has no budget beyond this date.
Driving Tests
Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of trends in driving test pass rates since the introduction of the approved driving instructor test. [48071]
Mike Penning: No assessment of trends in driving test pass rates has been made since the introduction of qualifying examinations for approved driving instructors over 40 years ago.
Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the pass rates for (a) Part 1, (b) Part 2 and (c) Part 3 of the approved driving instructor test. [48072]
Mike Penning: No such assessment of pass rates for approved driving instructor tests has been made.
Motor Vehicles: Insurance
Mr Nuttall: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will take steps to reduce the costs of motor insurance premiums for drivers who are between 17 and 25 years of age. [44468]
Mike Penning [holding answer 7 March 2011]: The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers and younger drivers pay more because they pose a higher risk to insurers. The Government are, however, taking a number of measures to help mitigate insurance costs, including steps to tackle uninsured driving and insurance fraud and to reduce the costs of litigation.
Continuous insurance enforcement will come into effect in the next few months to identify uninsured vehicles, which will make it harder to evade detection and penalties if vehicles are driven without the driver being insured. We are working with insurers to allow them access to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency drivers’ database in order to tackle insurance fraud at the underwriting stage. The Ministry of Justice has consulted on measures for reducing litigation costs and working with enforcement agencies and insurers to tackle fraud. These steps will all help to reduce insurance premiums, including for young drivers.
We are also considering how the driver testing and training process can be improved to better prepare new drivers for the roads, and therefore reduce their risks and hence insurance premiums.
Transport: Free Schools
Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidance his Department plans to issue to free schools on the safety of children travelling to and from free schools. [44528]
Mike Penning: The Department for Transport has developed educational resources covering the safety of children on all journeys. These are available to all schools, and to children and their parents.
Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee: Finance
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate has been made of the budget for the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15. [46645]
Norman Baker: The budget for Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee in 2010-11 is £496,000.
No final budget allocation has been made for DPTAC for 2011-12.
Highways Agency: Finance
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to reduce the Highways Agency revenue budget; how much each action he plans to take will save; and how much will be saved by each such action in each financial year of the comprehensive spending review period. [46640]
Mike Penning: The Highways Agency is currently working on plans to make the necessary reductions in expenditure within the spending review period ending in 2014-15.
The three key areas where savings are planned to be made are;
the delivery of efficiency savings on maintenance
the delivery of efficiency savings on major road schemes
the delivery of Traffic Officer Service reforms
The document published on the 28 October 2010, “Investment in Highways Transport Schemes” describes some of the key actions required. More details on the Highways Agency indicative budgets for the next four years will be published in the 2011-12 Highways Agency business plan which will be available at the end of this month.
Large Goods Vehicles: Driving Offences
Dr Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps his Department is taking to ensure drivers of light and heavy goods vehicles registered overseas are prosecuted for motoring offences committed in England and Wales. [45883]
Mike Penning: The police and examiners from the Department’s Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) are empowered to demand on-the-spot deposit payments from those offenders who do not have a satisfactory UK address. Such payments are taken either to cover the fixed penalty for the relevant offence or as a form of surety covering the potential fine for an offence which will be prosecuted in court.
Rolling Stock: Safety
Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on how many occasions trains or rolling stock used on the Norwich to London railway line failed reportable safety inspections in (a) 2007, (b)
22 Mar 2011 : Column 1064W
2008, (c) 2009 and (d) 2010; and what information his Department holds on instances of employees (i) operating trains and (ii) managing infrastructure on the Norwich to London railway line without the appropriate safety certificate or authorisation in each such year. [45836]
Mrs Villiers: This information is not held by the Department for Transport. Issues of operational rail safety are a matter for the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), as the independent health and safety regulator of Britain’s railways, and the relevant rail industry duty holders. The hon. Member may wish to contact the Office of Rail Regulation for further information at the following address:
Office of Rail Regulation
One Kemble Street
London
WC2B 4AN
Transport: Sustainable Development
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much revenue budget has been allocated to the local sustainable transport fund in 2010-11; and what measures this allocation will be used to fund. [46638]
Norman Baker: Funding for the local sustainable transport fund will commence in 2011-12 and the annual allocations are set out in the following table:
| £ million | |||||
| 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | Total | |
The overwhelming majority of funds will be used to support projects advocated by local authorities.
The remainder of funds will be used to support Bikeability training in each financial year, with £11 million revenue funding set aside in 2011-12. The level of Bikeability funding from 2012-15 has yet to be determined. In addition, the following projects will be funded in 2011-12 only, in order to maintain momentum on sustainable travel while local authorities prepare their proposals:
£13 million for Links to Schools, Bike Club and walking to school initiatives;
£1 million for the Transport Direct cycle journey planner; and
£250,000 to take forward business to business initiatives on alternatives to travel.
Local Government Finance
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish his Department’s impact assessment in respect of the reduction in local government resource grants. [46337]
Norman Baker: The Department for Transport did not prepare an Impact Assessment in respect of the reduction in local government resource grants. Spending proposals do not generally require an Impact Assessment, as they are developed through a business case process. Further information on business case process can be found at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/data_greenbook_business.htm
In addition, the Equality Impact Assessment undertaken by the Department for the local authority finance simplification undertaken as part of the spending review is available at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/165220-/equalityia.pdf
Cycling: Brighton
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has had discussions with Brighton and Hove city council on its proposal to use the Transport and Maintenance (LTP) capital grant to remove cycle lanes along both sides of Grand Avenue and The Drive; and if he will make a statement. [42877]
Norman Baker: Neither the Secretary of State for Transport nor I have had discussions with Brighton and Hove city council on its proposal to use the Transport and Maintenance (LTP) capital grant to remove cycle lanes along both sides of Grand Avenue and The Drive. Cycling England is following up this issue with Brighton and Hove city council at present. It is for local communities to decide how best to invest local funds.
Driving Offences: Mobile Phones
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many road accidents were caused by the driver using a mobile telephone in each of the last two years for which figures are available; how many (a) males and (b) females in each age group (i) were killed, (ii) were seriously injured and (iii) received minor injuries; and how many such people had been travelling in the vehicle as (A) the driver, (B) a front seat passenger and (C) a rear seat passenger. [48867]
Mike Penning: There were 323 reported personal injury road accidents in Great Britain in 2008, where a police officer attended the scene and “driver using mobile phone” was reported as a contributory factor.
The corresponding figure for 2009 was 325 reported accidents. This contributory factor includes ‘hand held’ and ‘hands free’ phones, where their use (or attempted use) contributed to the accident.
Further information requested is given in tables 1 to 3.
| Table 1: Casualties in reported road accidents where the contributory factor “driver using mobile phone” was reported, by gender and age, GB: 2008-09 | ||||
| Number of casualties | ||||
| Year of accident | Age of casualty | (a) Male | (b) Female | Total |
| (1) Includes cases where age was not reported. | ||||
| Table 2: Casualties in reported road accidents where the contributory factor “driver using mobile phone” was reported, by severity, GB: 2008-09 | ||||
| Severity of casualties | ||||
| Year of accident | (i) Killed | Serious | (iii) Slight | All severities |
| Table 3: Casualties in reported road accidents where the contributory factor “driver using mobile phone” was reported, by casualty class, GB: 2008-09 | ||||||
| Vehicles with a contributory factor of “driver using mobile phone” | ||||||
| Car occupants | Other vehicle occupants | |||||
| Year of accident | (A) Driver | (B) Front seatpassenger( 1) | (C) Rear seatpassenger( 1) | (A Driver or rider | (B+C) Passenger | Other casualties( 2) |
| (1) Seat positions can only be identified for car passengers. (2) Includes pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles for which this contributory factor was not reported. |
||||||
(1) Seat positions can only be identified for car passengers.
(2) Includes pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles for which this contributory factor was not reported.
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has made a recent estimate of the number of drivers of each (a) sex and (b) age group who regularly use a mobile telephone whilst driving; and if he will make a statement. [48868]
Mike Penning: Questions about frequency of using a hand-held mobile phone to speak or text while driving were asked as part of a survey of attitudes to road safety in 2010, with results available broken down by age and gender. The results of this survey are available on the DFT website:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/research/rsrr/theme5/natcen2010survey/
Large Goods Vehicles
Mr Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of heavy goods vehicles registered overseas which used roads in England in each of the last five years. [47750]
Mike Penning [holding answer 18 March 2011]: According to the Department for Transport’s “Survey of Foreign Road Goods Vehicles United Kingdom 2009”, there were 1,459,600 trips to the United Kingdom by foreign registered HGVs in 2009.
They are estimated to have travelled 0.948 billion vehicle kilometres in the UK in 2009, which is 4.8% of the 18.8 billion vehicle kilometres driven by UK-registered HGVs. Separate figures for England are not available.
Foreign-registered HGV statistics for the years 2000 and 2003 can be found on the DfT website. Statistics have not been compiled for other years.
Motor Vehicles: Safety Belts
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has made an estimate of the number of (a) males and (b) females in each age group who regularly (i) wear and (ii) do not wear a seat belt in the (A) front and (B) rear seats; and if he will make a statement. [48869]
Mike Penning: Estimates of the proportion of male and female car occupants (i) wearing and (ii) not wearing a seatbelt in observational surveys carried out in 2009 are shown in the following table, broken down by age group and seating position.
| Proportion of car occupants (i) wearing and (ii) not wearing a seatbelt or other restraint, weekdays: Department for Transport observational surveys, November 2009 | |||||
| Male | Female | ||||
| Age | % w earing | % n ot wearing | % w earing | % n ot wearing | |
Questions about frequency of not wearing a seatbelt as a driver and as a passenger were asked as part of a survey of attitudes to road safety in 2010, with results available broken down by age and gender. The results of this survey are available on the DfT website:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/research/rsrr/theme5/natcen2010survey/
Motorways: Speed Limits
Mr Leech: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of (a) the likely cost to the public purse of increasing the motorway speed limit to 80mph and (b) the effect of such an increase on the annual number of road deaths. [45329]
Mike Penning: No estimate has yet been made by the present Administration of the likely costs and impacts of increasing the motorway speed limit to 80 mph. Any such estimation would be considered as part of the implementation of our new road safety strategy, which we expect to publish in May.
Roads: Accidents
Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has assessed the merits of introducing stricter liability rules for drivers involved in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists for the purposes of making it easier for victims of negligent drivers to claim compensation. [37255]
Mike Penning: I do not consider that there is merit in a change from the current arrangements in favour of stricter liability. The general principle in considering negligence is that the victim needs to prove that the defendant’s actions caused the accident. It would be an anomaly if this was changed for collisions with pedestrians and cyclists. Also, it could lead to unfair results in cases where the motorist is driving entirely responsibly and the accident is caused by the irresponsible or negligent behaviour of a cyclist or pedestrian.
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many pregnant women in each age group were (a) killed, (b) severely injured and (c) slightly injured in road accidents when travelling in the vehicle as (i) the driver, (ii) a front seat passenger and (iii) a rear seat passenger in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and how many were (A) wearing and (B) not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. [48998]
Mike Penning: The information requested is not available. Information on whether the women involved in accidents are pregnant is not routinely collected by the police.
