Speeches by Greenwood.

“Obviously, using a handheld mobile phone while you are driving is clearly illegal. We do not want people to be driving in a distracted fashion. I am sure it has always been the case that you would have radio calls while you were driving. I do not think it is good practice for people to drive and have conversations on t…”

“One thing that is quite interesting if local authorities want to take action to discourage out-of-area licensing is to look at what their own requirements are. We had quite an interesting example in Oldham. It was concerned about the number of its drivers who were licensing out-of-area. It looked at its own requirement…”

“I am the Minister for Local Transport.”

“That is an interesting question. It is something that we have talked about because, obviously, TfL is the licensing authority for London. As I understand it, it does not have an elected licensing committee. It decides policy, and then the application of its licensing policy is delegated to officers. In lots of local au…”

“That is not something that I have had a discussion about.”

“Yes.”

“The disadvantage of having local authorities demand a particular sort of branding is precisely because people often work for a number of operators and, therefore, drivers might object to that. Obviously, taxis having a particular livery in their local authority is probably commonplace, but for PHVs if you require a sta…”

“They are different. There is potential for both to be distracting. This is not just an issue for taxi and private hire drivers; it is also an issue for delivery drivers.”

“Yes. In principle, we agree that the operators could helpfully have access to NR3S.”

“It is about what the necessary standards are. What is the licensing authority there to do? Clearly, it is about ensuring that the public are safe, have a quality of service, and are not going to face discrimination. To give you one example: there is one local authority that requires that PHV drivers wear shirt and trou…”

“We want licensing authorities to make sure that they are enforcing around that and that they are making it as easy as possible for people to report when those problems happen. It should not be entirely down to disabled people to have to do that reporting. I cannot remember the technical word for it, but local authoriti…”

“That is a really important question. There are some areas that I do not think we would actually allow for any variation from. When it comes to safeguarding, safety and accessibility, we want to set standards that it would be hard to improve on. For example, when it comes to safeguarding, we want every local authority t…”

“Obviously, we want there to be sufficient wheelchair accessible vehicles that serve the needs of disabled people who want them. It is fair to highlight the fact that wheelchair accessible vehicles are not necessarily the best accessible vehicles for all disabled people, because the higher step in and quite large area i…”

“I am absolutely aware of the issues and it is not a good situation. I do not want people to shop around for licences. The idea of introducing national minimum standards is partly because we wanted to act quickly, particularly in response to Baroness Casey’s recommendations, and there was an opportune way to do that. We…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her words and for the incredible work she has done to advocate on behalf of those who want safer streets and pavements and to raise the particular case of John and Karen Rowlands. I would be very happy to see their response to the motoring offences consultation.”

“The Roads and Buses Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood), who has responsibility for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, is sitting next to me. I recognise that there have been delays in dealing with some medical licensing. The DVLA is introducing a new IT system, which …”

“My hon. Friend will know that the Government are already taking action to address driving test wait times, which I know are incredibly frustrating. However, we need to ensure that young drivers are set up for a lifetime of safe driving. We know from evidence that a minimum learning period will save lives and improve sa…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question, and am very sorry to hear about that road traffic collision in his constituency. One of the things we are doing as part of this strategy is reissuing the manual for streets. That manual supports local authorities to introduce road safety measures, particularly in urban areas, ex…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Deaths and serious injuries resulting from road traffic collisions tear apart families and communities, and they come at great cost to our national health service and our country. Those are just some of the reasons why we are acting to reduce them.”

“Safer roads are an essential pillar of the safe system approach that underpins our road safety strategy. We have had a number of conversations about investments in infrastructure, and road safety remains the top priority for National Highways as it devises its road investment strategy.”