Speeches by Greenwood.

“This Government are committed to publishing a formal response to the consultation and announcing the next steps for pavement parking as soon as possible. We are currently considering the consultation outcome, including the views of many local authorities, and the options for tackling this nuisance.”

“The hon. Gentleman is not listening. We are implementing the seven-point plan, but turning around the mess and the problems that the Conservatives left us takes time. I am determined that we will see the results, that waiting times will come down and that we will support learner drivers. It cannot be done overnight whe…”

“We are acting to fix the mess that the shadow Minister’s Government left behind. Our seven-point plan is being implemented, and last month, the Secretary of State announced additional measures. We are determined to succeed where the last Government failed.”

“The right hon. Gentleman raises an important point. We know that people are booking tests in parts of the country where they have no intention of taking a test, because they can swap that for a test in another driving test centre. That is one of the issues addressed in the call for evidence that was launched in Decembe…”

“My hon. Friend is right to raise this issue. We are holding the DVSA to account for successfully implementing the measures in last December’s seven-point plan. Some 165 new driving examiners have already passed their training and are working in driving test centres, and last year the DVSA provided 1.95 million tests. T…”

“Last month, the Secretary of State announced further measures to tackle the unacceptable driving test backlog, including doubling training capacity for driving test examiners and offering overtime pay incentives to provide extra tests. That will create up to 10,000 extra tests a month. We are determined to get Britain’…”

“I appreciate the work that my hon. Friend is doing to stand up for his constituents, who rely so much on rail services. As he acknowledges, plans for a major upgrade to the Brighton main line were cancelled by the previous Government in the 2021 spending review, and they did not even acknowledge that that had happened.…”

“Officials in my Department are in regular discussions with Network Rail and train operators on opportunities to improve services across the Brighton main line, taking account of changes to commuter travel since the pandemic. Decisions about the Department’s capital portfolio will be announced after completion of the 20…”

“It is incredibly challenging in those circumstances that you have described. Developers will want different utilities at different times. I recall from the evidence that getting the water in might be an earlier thing than getting the electricity in. We can look at whether we could do more to ensure that developers shar…”

“If local authorities want to provide evidence in relation to the need to increase, we have heard that. The request from the Department has been for further evidence from local authorities in order for us to look at whether that would be a reasonable thing to do. Whenever we put cost into this, it is ultimately going to…”

“Inspection fees are for undertaking the inspection. You are going to have to undertake the inspection, whether you find a defect or not. They are higher if you are required to pay for more inspections.”

“Yes.”

“I saw the evidence provided by the commissioner in Scotland. He said that it is the road authorities who carry out the coring, and he operates in a co-ordinating role. There are local authorities in England that do coring, and the Committee heard evidence to that effect. There is nothing to prevent there being some co-…”

“In the way that the guidance is set up, it sets out how to do coring, and local authorities would understand the value of that. Anthony, I do not know whether you want to comment.”

“That would have required us to carry out a further consultation, so we decided to act when we had the opportunity to do so.”

“I am going to let you have a bash as well. I am concerned about performance if local authorities are telling us that utility companies are not performing well enough. The scheme that we have has developed over time precisely to do what you are asking, which is to say, “We do not think that it is performing as well as i…”

“The obvious question is about who is going to pay for it. As I understand it, in Scotland, the road authorities are doing the coring, but there is national co-ordination. In England, there are some local authorities that have coring programmes. We heard that Salford does within Greater Manchester, as does another local…”

“Yes, but they may be wishing that DfT would decide that we were going to pay for a national coring programme that would be over and above the funding that local authorities receive, which might be somewhat wishful thinking at this point.”

“I am not going to comment on section 81, because, surprisingly, I cannot pick out of my head where that is. I am going to turn to Anthony for that one.”

“There has been a big increase in telecommunications works, and a lot of new operators in the space, so it is about making sure that they are part of this. I do not know whether you can set out a little more clearly what the specific problems are.”