Speeches by Alexander.

“Jo might want to say something particularly about the approach that we are taking within the DFT corporately to some of the points you raised there about staffing levels. One thing to remember when it comes to the work of the Department for Transport is that you have Network Rail and National Highways, which are both v…”

“Thank you for that question. I would like to thank the Committee for your work on accessibility, because it is a big priority for my Department to create a much more inclusive transport network. You are right to say that we indicated that we want to work with the Law Commission on a review. If you think about all the d…”

“I maintain that the Law Commission is the right body to do this work. As I said, we are looking at whether we can do something in a phased way. As well though, it is about political will and making parliamentary time available when you get a Law Commission report back. For whatever reason, I do not think that that poli…”

“I appreciate the point you are making about the onus often being on the user and the disabled person to take action. In the Railways Bill, you will have seen that we are proposing a strengthened passenger watchdog, which will be able to act as that consumer champion, and very much so on the issue of accessibility. We a…”

“As I said, that informed all our discussions at the spending review. Through the spending review, we secured a package that enables us to grow the economy, be that the more than £25 billion that we are spending on HS2 in capital, or the £15.6 billion that we are spending on transport for city regions to unlock producti…”

“I understand the point you are making, Chair. When we publish the integrated national transport strategy next year, that will give you a clearer sense of direction on some of the issues that you are raising.”

“We secured £280 million through the spending review to fund the access for all programme at stations across the country. You may recall that the previous Government, just before the election, announced 50 schemes that they were going to take forward for some initial scoping and early design work. Network Rail has been …”

“Getting the balance right between reducing disruption and enabling essential works is a perennial problem, is it not? We are taking action as a Government, in that we are increasing fines for works that are overrunning. That can be up to £10,000 now for works that are running into weekends. The new fine level will come…”

“The quickest and easiest way to explain this is that we need to get more bums on seats. We need to increase the number of people who are using the railways. The less we are paying as a country to move half-empty bits of steel around the rail network, the better value for money we will be getting, so there is an ambitio…”

“Jo, you might want to pick this one up. I can tell you what outcomes we are trying to achieve.”

“The Chancellor and the Treasury are very aware of the potential electric vehicles offer in terms of jobs of the future. We are investing in battery giga plants, for example, and supporting developments down in Somerset around that. We also moved very swiftly in the summer, when we had some volatility around internation…”

“It was a specific decision of the Government to publish the spending review, the industrial strategy and the infrastructure strategy around the same time, so that we could make sure that they were aligned and could provide long-term certainty about the investment pipeline, for example, to lever in private sector invest…”

“I hope to be able to say more on that in the next couple of months. We are fully committed to ensuring that the great cities of the north of England have better rail connectivity, but we want to get it right. Following the publication of the James Stewart review, it makes sense for us to take our time and make sure tha…”

“I am Heidi Alexander and I am the Secretary of State for Transport.”

“I am really lucky to have an excellent team. You are right to say that Lilian Greenwood, who had been the Future of Roads Minister, is now spending some of her time as the transport Whip. I have reorganised the portfolios of the Ministers to make sure that individuals have the right workload. Lilian will be taking on t…”

“Good morning, everyone. Thanks ever so much for having me back. I think the last time I was here was in April, so it is good to have this regular catch-up. You asked me how I would assess the state of progress in my Department, with this Government having been in office for 16 months now. I think we are doing a good jo…”

“There are two really important things to remember when it comes to investment in transport over the next three to four years, both in the day-to-day spending, so the resource spending that we have, and the capital spending. Jo might like to pick up on some of the detail of it. Broadly speaking, when you look at capital…”

“No, we need to make sure that our spending priorities map clearly against the outcomes that we are trying to achieve. First and foremost among those is making sure that we are supporting growth in the economy. The second one is that we create a cleaner, greener, safer and healthier transport system. We also want to mak…”

“We are looking at how we devolve decision making on lane rental schemes to mayoral strategic areas. There is a question about the appropriate geography over which lane rental schemes could operate. I hope to be saying more about that devolution of decision making on lane rental schemes in due course.”

“Yes. We have seen a period of time where you have third parties booking up these slots for driving tests and then selling them on at hugely inflated prices, such as you have just described. We do need to take action on this. We consulted on it over the summer. It does require secondary legislation. We hope to be able t…”