Written questions by Buckley.

What steps her Department is taking under GBR to increase cross border rail connections, such as the Wrexham-Shropshire-Midlands Railway.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation

Which English counties do not have a direct train link to London; and whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the lack of such links on those counties.

The only English county that does not have a direct train service from London is Shropshire.The department 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.  Looking ahead to GBR, this offers us the opportunity to go further with optimising train services and driving up utilisation. Through GBR’s directing mind function, services and timetables will be developed in a coherent fashion that drives up network performance and improves the journey experience.

How competition regulations on state aid are applied by the Office of Rail and Road when assessing applications for Open Access rail services; and what changes are expected following the ORR's move into her Department.

Under the current framework, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is responsible for making access decisions in line with its statutory duties. Moving forward, this will change as Great British Railways takes over responsibility for managing access to the network and ORR takes on a new role to hold GBR to account and ensure fairness and transparency for all operators. ORR will not, however, become part of the Department for Transport – it will remain independent. All public bodies, including ORR and the future GBR, are obliged to comply with subsidy control and competition legislation across all of their activities, and this will remain the case.

Of the £21 billion of new local transport funding announced across the Comprehensive Spending Review period, how much funding is allocated to (a) Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, (b) Mayoral Strategic Authorities, and (c) local councils not within a combined authority.

Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities will receive c£7.7bn of transport funding through their integrated settlement over the Spending Review period from 2026/27 to 2029/30 (to 2028/29 for Resource Funding). Mayoral Strategic Authorities with a mayor in place will receive c£4bn of transport funding through the Mayoral Transport Fund over the same period. All other local transport authorities will receive c£9.6bn of local transport funding over the Spending Review period, via the Integrated Transport Fund and Bus Services Fund. This includes c£1.2bn for Foundation Strategic Authorities (combined authorities without an elected mayor) and c£2.9bn for local authorities that are part of the Devolution Priority Programme and are due to be established as Mayoral Transport Authorities.

If she will take steps to ensure that Metro Mayors retain roles in heavy rail governance under the provisions of the Railways Bill.

Great British Railways (GBR) will work in partnership with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, underpinned by statutory roles outlined in the Railways Bill. The Railways Bill enables cooperation between GBR and Mayoral Strategic Authorities, allowing for information sharing and the ability to enter into arrangements regarding railway functions.

How the Railways Bill will support improved connectivity for communities currently without such links.

The Railways Bill will streamline the current fragmented system by establishing Great British Railways (GBR) as a new ‘directing mind’ for the industry, unifying track and train under one public body to deliver better services for passengers and customers, and better value for money for taxpayers. GBR will work collaboratively with devolved leaders and local stakeholders to support local rail needs and improved integration with other modes.

Whether the Railways Bill will set out the duties of the Great British Railways.

The Railways Bill includes a range of duties which will apply across the activities of GBR. Clause 18 sets the general duties which will apply to GBR, the ORR, the Secretary of State for Transport, and Scottish and Welsh Ministers. The general duties include promoting the interests of passengers, and promoting high standards of rail service performance. They set the foundation for how GBR will operate, guided by the public interest, and empowered to deliver a railway that works for its users, taxpayers and the wider public.The Government has published a collection of fact sheets relating to the Railways Bill which can be found on the Gov.uk website. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/railways-bill

How the Railways Bill will ensure that access rights to the network are fair, transparent and enforceable, particularly where Great British Rail will both manage infrastructure and operate services.

The new access framework within the Railways Bill will ensure that GBR will determine the best use of the network capacity for all operators in accordance with its statutory duties. New legislation will include key safeguards for third party operators, ensuring that GBR’s decisions on network access are fair and transparent with a strong route of appeal to the ORR. GBR will be required to design and consult with industry on its access and use policy which will set out the processes and criteria on how it will take access and capacity allocation decisions, and on which the ORR will be a statutory consultee.

What steps she will take to assess passenger affordability when setting rail fares.

Passenger affordability is a top priority for this Government when setting rail fares. That is why this year we have taken the historic step of freezing regulated rail fares for the first time in 30 years, putting money back in hard working people’s pockets and delivering savings for passengers across billions of journeys. It is important that we strike the right balance between affordability for passengers and reducing the burden on taxpayers. As set out in the Government’s response to the consultation on the Railways Bill, future fares policy under Great British Railways (GBR) will be guided by strategic parameters and guardrails, set by the Secretary of State and aligned to GBR’s financial settlement, providing GBR with greater autonomy and flexibility compared to today. These will reassure passengers that their fares will remain affordable, while ensuring sustainable use of taxpayer money on the network.

When she plans to lay secondary legislation enabling local authorities outside London to enforce against pavement parking.

We will lay secondary legislation later in 2026 to give local authorities powers to issue Penalty Charge Notices for vehicles parked in a way that unnecessarily obstructs the pavement.At the next opportunity we will then introduce the necessary primary legislation to make powers available on an opt-in basis to Local Transport Authorities to prohibit pavement parking across their whole area. They will also have powers to exempt locations where pavement parking would still be necessary to maintain traffic flow, such as in narrow streets. Where there is no Strategic Authority, Unitary Authorities and County Councils would also have the choice to opt in.

What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of National Highways' work to improve road safety on the A5 and A458.

The Department for Transport has not conducted a specific assessment of the adequacy of National Highways' work to improve road safety on the English sections of the A5 and A458. The Department assesses safety across the Strategic Road Network which includes motorways and major A-roads managed by National Highways using a combination of data-driven analysis, risk-based assessments, and post-project evaluations.

Whether her Department plans to increase police powers to help tackle anti-social behaviour linked to drone use.

There are a range of existing powers to tackle anti-social drone behaviour, this includes the police powers under the Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Act 2021 to require a person to land a drone and to carry out stop and search for certain drone-related offences; and under the Air Navigation Order 2016, it is an offence to endanger an aircraft through non-compliant drone use, punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. We work closely with the police and home office to keep the need for powers under review, and from 1 January 2026, Direct Remote ID requirements will come into force for some types of drones (UK1, UK2, UK3, UK5 and UK6 UAS), enabling the police to access location information during flight to support more effective enforcement and deterrence. Remote ID will also increase operator accountability by allowing the unique ID of a drone to be reported and linked to a registered individual, supporting police investigations into misuse.

What her planned timescales are for considering local bus service improvement plans.

Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) are developed by Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) and set out the vision, objectives and delivery plans of LTAs and their partners to drive improvements to local bus services. While the government expects BSIPs to be published and readily accessible to all, they remain under the full control of local leaders and the Department no longer reviews the BSIPs before approving funding allocations.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of continuing the bus fare cap.

Delivering reliable and affordable public transport services is one of the government’s top priorities and we know how important this is for passengers and for local growth. The government is investing over £150 million to deliver a new £3 cap on single bus fares in England outside London from 1 January until 31 December 2025 to help millions access better opportunities and promote greater bus use by passengers. If we had not taken action in the Budget, the bus fare cap would have ended and fares would have jumped back up to their previous levels on 31 December 2024. This would have meant some fares soared above £10 on the most expensive routes, as the last government had not funded the fare cap beyond the end of the year. Instead, we chose to fund an additional year of the fare cap but with the maximum price now set at £3. This does not mean, however, that all fares will rise to £3 as we will require operators to demonstrate that they have not raised fares any higher than inflation. This government is committed to improving bus services across the country, which is why the Budget allocated more than £1 billion to local bus services. This will be used to expand services and improve reliability, which are currently massive obstacles for too many people. Moving forward, the government is exploring more targeted options that deliver value for money to the taxpayer, to ensure affordable bus travel is always available for the groups who need it the most – such as young people.

What assessment she has made of the (a) adequacy of schemes offered by the Government to encourage more people to buy electric vehicles and (b) effectiveness of those schemes in helping the UK reach its net zero targets.

This Government is committed to the transition to electric vehicles (EV) and is encouraging uptake through a range of taxation incentives and grants. Drivers of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) will continue to benefit from favourable tax rates, such as generous company car tax incentives, which have been set until March 2030. ZEVs remain exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED) until April 2025, after which they will still have preferential first year rates. In addition, the Government has announced £120m for next financial year to support the purchase of new electric vans and manufacturing of wheelchair accessible vehicles. The Government is also committed to accelerating the rollout of charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an EV. As of 1 November, there are over 71,000 publicly available charging devices in the UK, alongside 680,000 private chargepoints in England alone, supporting drivers to switch to EVs.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of granting a presumptive right to install electric vehicle chargers at their own cost to people living in rented accommodation.

The Government already provides support for people living in rented accommodation to install chargepoints, through its Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant. This provides up to £350 toward the costs of purchasing and installing an electric vehicle chargepoint. We will continue to review whether further steps are needed.