Speeches by Greenwood.

“One thing that we are doing in relation to EV charging is the proposal to allow EV charge point operators to access the permit system in order to carry out street works. That is advantageous in the sense that those works, as far as possible, can be co-ordinated alongside other works that are happening on carriageways a…”

“We need to make sure it continues to work. Utility companies can pass on lane rental charges to customer bills. We want to make sure that it incentivises them to avoid charges. We do not want to put up the prices of everybody’s utility bills by doing this. We want them to change their behaviours in the way they carry o…”

“It was directed to you.”

“We are getting feedback from those authorities that are operating it and seeing what the impacts are. Some of the existing evaluations indicate that the behaviour of utility companies and highways authorities is changing. Both are part of these lane rental schemes. They are for highways authorities doing their own road…”

“We are looking at the proposals in those applications that have already been made. We have issued guidance to highways authorities to help them develop their bids. The whole purpose of lane rental is for it to be targeted on the most congested roads at the most congested times. The point is to incentivise those carryin…”

“If the question was whether highways authorities can apply, subject to Secretary of State approval, it is open to all highways authorities to apply to operate a lane rental scheme.”

“Yes, I am sorry. I misunderstood.”

“There is flexibility within lane rental schemes about how they are operated. Generally, we have had good feedback from authorities on the five lane rental schemes that are operating. The local authorities think they are effective. The utilities are often avoiding having to pay the charges by doing things in a better wa…”

“Yes.”

“I will have to go away and look at that one. I would anticipate that someone will have gone out to site and said, “Why do you not have your traffic management in place?”, and that would result in them putting their traffic management in place, especially if they have a fixed penalty notice. If that is routinely happeni…”

“We could consider other incentives that are performance-based. It would require legislation. We could consider not issuing utility companies with permits until they had fixed a particular long-standing issue.”

“The power is there for the local authority to use it, if there are those overruns. I am willing to look at this again if we feel it is not having the desired impact.”

“We are doubling them. We will be able to look at whether that is effective. In terms of the overrun charges, £10,000 per day is significant.”

“That is not where we want to get to. There are fixed penalty notices for some offences, such as working without a permit, breaching a permit condition or late submission of start and stop notices. I would expect those to be implemented, if they are needed. They are not an alternative to engaging with utility companies …”

“The fines are a bit of a backstop position.”

“In coming into the DfT, one of my concerns was in finding that a large number of fines, fees and charges had not been reviewed for a really long time. As you know, there has already been a consultation on increasing the penalties available with options to increase in line with inflation or to double. We decided to doub…”

“Is that something you could comment on, Anthony?”

“There are specified works, which are the things that need to be carried out under a permit. Those were agreed with HAUC following consultation. Works that must be carried out under a permit involve breaking up or resurfacing the road, closing the carriageway or reducing lanes on larger carriageways. The works that are …”

“There was a change in the code of practice because there had been an error. The code of practice was not in line with the legislation. It has been returned to be in line with the legislation. I am struggling to find my bit of information now.”

“I have not heard any suggestion that immediate emergency, where there is a danger to life, is in need of significant change. Indeed, the percentage of works under that category has gone down in recent years, where the immediate urgent has gone up slightly. I absolutely agree that we could look at whether there is an op…”