The Government is supporting the UK bus manufacturing industry through DRIVE35, which backs the design, development and manufacture of zero emission vehicles, including buses. This will help UK manufacturers and suppliers invest in new technologies, scale up production and strengthen domestic capability. In March, the Government announced £73.2 million in additional zero emission bus funding to support the delivery of 484 zero- emission buses across 10 projects in England. The Government has also published a 10-year zero-emission bus order pipeline, updated twice yearly, to give manufacturers greater visibility of future demand.

Local authorities are responsible for arranging home to school travel for eligible children. They deliver their duty through a mix of in-house services, passes for free travel on public transport and contracts with private transport operators. Such contracts are a matter for the council and the operator.

The government is taking action to mitigate cost pressures where possible. We have extended the 5p fuel duty cut and petrol stations in the UK are being supplied as normal. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced over £100 million additional funding for the bus sector and is helping children travel for free by bus this August on participating local buses.

The Notice sets out that the Authority’s progress will be reviewed after twelve months. The Notice remains in place until the Department confirms whether we deem it necessary to continue to seek assurance through such a Notice or not, or that further action is needed.

Any decisions on the Notice will be based on a holistic judgement of all available information, including considered engagement with the authority and its delivery partners throughout the Notice period about progress against its improvement plan.

The Department continues to require assurance of the Authority’s compliance with the Best Value Duty and Ministers are currently considering appropriate next steps based on the available evidence.

The Government’s DRIVE35 programme supports the design, development and manufacture of zero emission vehicles, including buses. This will help UK bus manufacturers and suppliers invest in new technologies, scale up their production and strengthen domestic capability.

In March, the Government announced £73.2 million in additional zero‑emission bus funding to support the delivery of 484 zero‑emission buses across 10 projects in England. To give UK bus manufacturers greater visibility of future demand, the Government has also published a 10-year zero-emission bus order pipeline, updated twice yearly.

On 8 January 2026, I announced the publication of the government’s formal response to the 2020 public consultation 'Pavement parking: options for change' which sets out what the government plans to do to tackle pavement parking. In the first instance we plan to give local authorities powers before the end of this year to issue Penalty Charge Notices for vehicles parked in a way that unnecessarily obstructs the pavement. The Department will engage with local authorities on the detail of these plans.

Driving whilst disqualified is already a criminal offence, carrying a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine and/or 6 months’ imprisonment. This is in addition to any penalties for other offences committed during the same incident, such as driving without insurance, careless or dangerous driving, or drink or drug driving.

Enforcement of this offence is an operational matter for the police. Sentencing in individual cases, including the appropriate length of any sentence or further disqualification, is a matter for the independent courts. The courts may take account of relevant aggravating factors, including previous convictions and repeated non-compliance with court orders.

The Department keeps under review the penalties for the road traffic offences for which it is responsible to ensure that they remain appropriate and effective. As part of the recent motoring offences consultation, the Department sought views on whether, in cases where death or serious injury has occurred, the statutory time limit for driving unlicensed, uninsured or disqualified should be extended from 6 months to 18 months. Responses are now being analysed.

Enforcement of road traffic law is an operational matter for the police, and sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent courts.

Since 2011, Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) has enabled action to be taken against those who keep a vehicle without insurance. The scheme allows uninsured vehicles to be identified from a comparison of the DVLA’s vehicle register and the Motor Insurance Database of insurance policies managed by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB). Under CIE keepers of vehicles which appear to be uninsured are sent reminder letters. Those who take no action receive a fixed penalty of £100, followed by enforcement action including prosecution.

CIE supplements enforcement action taken by the police on the road. Since 2005 the police have had the power to seize vehicles that are being driven without insurance. In addition to a £300 fixed penalty and 6 penalty points on their licence for the offence, those whose vehicles have been seized face a cost to recover the vehicle and must provide proof that the vehicle has been insured. Seized vehicles that are not claimed within 14 days can be sold or crushed.

The Department for Transport published the consultation, “Proposed changes to penalties for motoring offences” on 7 January 2026. It sought views on changes to the motoring offences framework, including consideration of whether the minimum penalties for the offence of driving uninsured and failure to stop and report should be increased.

The consultation closed on 11 May 2026, and the Government is considering the responses.

Enforcement of road traffic law is an operational matter for the police, and sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent courts.

Since 2011, Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) has enabled action to be taken against those who keep a vehicle without insurance. The scheme allows uninsured vehicles to be identified from a comparison of the DVLA’s vehicle register and the Motor Insurance Database of insurance policies managed by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB). Under CIE keepers of vehicles which appear to be uninsured are sent reminder letters. Those who take no action receive a fixed penalty of £100, followed by enforcement action including prosecution.

CIE supplements enforcement action taken by the police on the road. Since 2005 the police have had the power to seize vehicles that are being driven without insurance. In addition to a £300 fixed penalty and 6 penalty points on their licence for the offence, those whose vehicles have been seized face a cost to recover the vehicle and must provide proof that the vehicle has been insured. Seized vehicles that are not claimed within 14 days can be sold or crushed.

The Department for Transport published the consultation, “Proposed changes to penalties for motoring offences” on 7 January 2026. It sought views on changes to the motoring offences framework, including consideration of whether the minimum penalties for the offence of driving uninsured and failure to stop and report should be increased.

The consultation closed on 11 May 2026, and the Government is considering the responses.

Arrangements are already in place to support data sharing to tackle uninsured driving through Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE). Under CIE, DVLA vehicle records are compared with insurance data held by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to identify vehicles that appear to be uninsured, enabling reminder letters to be issued and, where no action is taken, penalties and further enforcement action.

In addition, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau shares insurance data with police forces to support roadside enforcement, including through Automatic Number Plate Recognition and national activity such as Operation Tutelage. The Department and DVLA continue to work closely with law enforcement and insurance partners to ensure data is shared lawfully, effectively and proportionately, and keep these arrangements under review.

Maintaining tyres in good condition and ensuring they are appropriate for the vehicle, including across the same axle, is important for road safety. The MOT test includes checks to ensure that tyres are in a safe condition, are suitable for the vehicle, and are compatible across an axle. This includes consideration of tyre size and fitment to ensure they are not obviously unsuitable for use. However, it is not a substitute for proper maintenance and correct tyre selection by the user.

Decisions on how community support officers are designated with powers for traffic enforcement is an operational matter for chief officers. Chief Officers will take decisions with consideration for local policing plans.

Other enforcement officers, including wardens and civil enforcement officers, are employed by local authorities and public bodies to support the management and enforcement of traffic in England and Wales, under civil or limited statutory powers.

The Home Office does not collect data on the utilisation of such powers.

The reforms outlined within the Police Reform White Paper will put the right policing in the right place to ensure we more effectively tackle crime. At a local level, this means local police areas will be entirely focused on their community and the epidemic of so-called lower-level offences they face.

It is for Chief Constables to determine the appropriate resourcing model for their force. However, this Government is supporting Chief Constables and the wider policy system with £21 billion of funding via the police funding settlement in 2026/27, an increase of £1.3 billion on 2025/26.

On traffic offences in particular, these offences are increasingly detected and enforced through technology rather than through traditional officer‑led activity. Digital tools allow high‑volume, consistent enforcement without requiring significant additional frontline resource. A reformed policing system is an essential step in unlocking consistent and capable technology across all of policing.

Further, the Road Safety strategy announced on 7 January, will consult on range of motoring offences including the use of technology and introduces a new Roads Policing Innovation Programme to improve road safety and targeted enforcement including for low level offences such as speeding.

Whilst we will not reverse the previous government’s decision to cancel Phase 2, we recognise concerns about rail capacity and connectivity between Birmingham and Manchester. We are reviewing our plans for future connectivity in the Midlands and the North, and we hope to say more soon, including our plans for land and property between Birmingham and Crewe.

The Government does not hold this information.

Commercial decisions about the procurement of components are left to developers.

Our approach to the modelling and appraisal of journey time changes is intended to capture the behavioural choices of travellers, and the resulting impacts on the welfare of society.

There is evidence from everyday life of individuals making choices that suggest they value very small time savings. For instance, pedestrians may choose to cross rather than wait for traffic lights to change, while travellers may rush to catch an underground service, to save 1-2 minutes.

The most recent national study into passenger values of time (Arup et al, 2015), considered this issue, and we provided the rationale for capturing the full range of sizes of time saving as part of our 2016 consultation response on values of travel time.

Firstly, that appraisals are carried out ‘at the margin’ for an incremental scheme, and hence capturing time savings of any size and valuing them at a constant unit value provides a robust mathematical framework to aggregate impacts in a consistent fashion across appraisals.

Furthermore, to ensure a representative approach, we want to reflect the full spectrum of sizes of time saving attributable to different kinds of schemes and different modes. Our approach to the capturing of small time savings is consistent with appraisal frameworks in other countries, for example Sweden.

We intend to gather further evidence on the value of small increments of time savings as part of the next national value of time study, currently being planned.

The department currently requires its operators to plan services and rail timetables that are designed to meet expected passenger demand and provide value for money for the taxpayer. Typically, demand for services on Boxing Day is low and much of the network is closed to provide opportunity for essential maintenance. We expect operators and in future, GBR, to continue to consider the case for Boxing Day services where there is demand and they do not further increase the burden on taxpayers.

Transport models are capable of capturing almost any scale of changes in journey time, down to fractions of seconds. Typically, these are aggregated across travellers to provide a measure of the impact of the scheme.

In the Department’s Appraisal Summary Table, used to capture the key results in the appraisal, promoters are requested to provide a breakdown of the total monetary value of net journey time changes by the following increments:

• Changes of 0 to 2 minutes
• Changes of 2 to 5 minutes
• Changes of greater than 5 minutes.

The Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) uses evidence based on a range of valuation methods, including Stated Preference (SP) techniques.

The valuations of changes to passenger travel time in TAG are based on a large-scale set of SP surveys carried out in 2014/15, which surveyed 9,000 individuals and businesses to understand travel behaviour, and elicited values relating to travel time and reliability, as well as parameters relating to journey quality. Findings from this research were implemented in TAG in 2017, and are kept under review.

Further guidance on journey quality impacts for bus and active mode travel are underpinned by SP studies undertaken in 2009 and 1996/7 respectively, while evidence on the ‘option value’ of rail travel is drawn from a 2006 SP study.

Aspects of the evidence base in TAG on impacts to life and health, used in the appraisal of environmental and safety impacts, draw on several SP studies undertaken during the 1990s.

The DfT regularly reviews the evidence base underpinning TAG to ensure it remains a robust basis for investment decision-making. This includes commissioning new research using a variety of valuation methods. A notable recent example relates to the 2023 DfT and National Highways-commissioned study into road freight values of travel time, which utilised SP techniques.

Worcestershire Parkway was funded by Worcestershire County Council (WCC), it developed the business case with forecast usage, revenue and costs. The Government supported it through a commercial agreement for train services to use the station. The Government has not commissioned post opening evaluation, but WCC has undertaken studies that show the passenger usage and revenue has exceeded their forecast. Lord Bradshaw is advised to contact WCC for further information.

The Government takes national security extremely seriously and continuously monitors, understands and mitigates potential security threats from a wide range of technologies. My officials are looking into the Norwegian reports and will feed any new information into our continuing work.