Speeches by Mayer.

“I, too, thank John Tizard for his tireless work in securing extra resources for Bedfordshire police. I tend to agree that the mayoral model is the best way forward. Does the Minister agree that it is vital that we redouble our efforts to move at real pace to ensure there is a mayor in every area of England, rather than…”

“In the Government’s response, it talks a lot about funding mechanisms. You have talked about franchising. A lot of us welcome the new powers in the Bus Services (No.2) Bill. It is possibly an Act now.”

“Transport did really well in the Government’s first King’s Speech, and you have been very busy with lots of legislation. As a Committee, though, we think that there are some outstanding issues, notably pavement parking, as well as micro-mobility, which I know you have said you are keen to legislate on when time permits…”

“Can I just press on our bus recommendation? It was recommendation 7, which is the one that I was just talking about, in terms of mandating local transport authorities to publish the transparent methodology. I was a bit confused, to be honest, as to why that was completely rejected, given that we had already had a lette…”

“We are always very grateful for the prompt and detailed responses that we get to our reports, but we have noticed that the nuance of what we are suggesting in our recommendations is sometimes perhaps overlooked, and we get some answers that are at a bit of a tangent. Maybe I could give you two examples. In our street w…”

“Do you think that the cost recovery model is the right one for today, or do you think that perhaps these fees and charges could be used as a demand management tool?”

“The cost of a practical driving test has not increased very much in recent years, whereas it used to in the past. I was looking at the figures when I was—very slowly—learning to drive. Between 1998 and 2004—when I was failing my test all the time—it increased by 25%, yet it has not gone up since March 2009. When you la…”

“My concern is about interim officers in local government, and CEOs who pop up in one place and then pop up somewhere else a couple of months after they have resigned. What safeguards are in place to ensure that negative behaviours or actions in one organisation do not appear in another where the same individual is invo…”

“That is fantastic. In your response, it says that you want to see a better standard of public transport right across the country. It is just that there does not seem to be much of a description as to what that would mean for a passenger. Does that mean frequency, reliability or accessibility? Do the Government have tar…”

“I do not think that our recommendation called for that. Is it your view that a national ambition is always going to be incompatible with local decision making?”

“Our buses report asked your Department to consider adopting an ambition for local transport authorities to provide a minimum level of public transport connectivity based on settlement types. You rejected that recommendation, saying that it would be very challenging. What is your evidence that it would be very challengi…”

“The BBC is unique and special, and it is ours. Yes, it is absolutely a part of the national conversation—but, importantly, it is also a part of the regional and local conversation. I have fantastic local journalists in my patch on Three Counties Radio and on “Look East”, and the fact is that a local story, which a loca…”

“This morning, I was thrilled to unveil a plaque in Leighton Buzzard, next to the church, to honour the people who served at a place called Q Central. It is not very well known that during the second world war, 5,000 personnel served just outside Leighton Buzzard, and they were predominantly women. During the war, this …”

“We heard in a previous session that the skills that people need for making biscuits can overlap with the skills needed to make batteries for electric vehicles. What is the Government doing to make the best use of those overlapping skills, ideally without causing a shortage of custard creams?”

“In our last panel just before, we heard how there were cleaners working on trains. Is it an issue that our policy does not talk to people like that? In the sense that we have policies that talk to people who are furthest away from the labour market, but what about those people who have a job already, they are in work, …”

“We have heard that qualification requirements can sometimes hamper movement between different manufacturing sectors. Do you think this is something where, basically, the job adverts and the expectations of the company need to change, or is it that we need to change the qualifications themselves so that they, in essence…”

“It is also important to get letters into the postal service in the first place. In Bidwell West, which is in my constituency, residents face a 30-minute walk to the nearest post box. That is because Royal Mail refuses to put in new post boxes on unadopted roads, despite the fact that the developer is perfectly happy fo…”

“A year ago, I delivered a petition to Downing Street calling for quieter fireworks, keeping the whoosh but getting rid of the bang. This year, fireworks night falls on a Wednesday. Will the Leader of the House consider having a debate on designating a specific weekend for bonfire night and fireworks, to reduce all the …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) for securing this important debate. I have no doubt that one day autonomous vehicles will be the norm on our buses, and I am perfectly okay with that, because I am fairly sure that any robot wou…”

“Do you think there is some hope in the sense that transport as an industry is changing? We are getting more electric and autonomous vehicles. It feels like a greener and cleaner environment. Should we be selling that as we try to encourage more women into the workforce for transport?”