The total number of ANPR images read between July 2025 and June 2026 was 95.6 million, of which 1.3 million were potential unlicensed vehicles. After the removal of those vehicles sighted more than once, 511,801 were reviewed by staff who identified 45,427 images which contained misread number plates. The DVLA routinely checks for misreads before taking action regarding non-payment of Vehicle Excise Duty.

The hon. Member is right to raise this question, which a number of my hon. Friends have also raised. The DVLA is working very closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and, as he will know, alongside the road safety strategy we have a consultation on motoring offences, which includes proposals for tougher penalties for those displaying illegal plates.

This Government are working hard where the previous Government failed. We are working closely with the DVSA to ensure that it is able to provide the tests that are needed. Things are starting to turn around—we had record numbers of tests in December —but I acknowledge that there is much to do. We are getting on and doing it.

Following a search, I can confirm that the Department holds no record of receiving this email. If a copy can be forwarded a response will be provided.

A signal cable failure at Woking delayed the 19.05 from London Waterloo to Christchurch on the 14 July. Passengers are entitled to compensation under the national Delay Repay scheme. As the 19.05 was delayed for 120 minutes or more, passengers can claim compensation for 100 percent of the cost of their journey. Industry data doesn’t enable a reliable estimate on the number of impacted passengers to be made.

South Western Railway (SWR) were brought into public ownership on 25 May 2025. Since this date, 9.5 per cent of trains have been cancelled and 12.9 per cent of trains have been delayed by more than 15 minutes between London Waterloo and Christchurch. These cancellations and delays were not a result of the move to public ownership and could have equally occurred under private ownership. The new Managing Director for SWR, Lawrence Bowman, has been tasked with developing a detailed plan to improve SWR performance.

As the hon. Member knows, matters relating to taxation are for the Treasury rather than the Department for Transport, but I am sure that the Chancellor will be looking at the proposals that he brings forward.

The Blue Badge scheme is administered, funded and operated at local level by individual local authorities. There are no timescales set for administering applications other than a suggested guideline that issuing authorities should aim to complete end to end applications within 12 weeks.

In England local authorities are legally entitled to charge a fee of up to £10 for each badge issued which allows them to recover some of the costs involved in administering the scheme. The Department has no plans to amend legislation.

The Department received 13 applications from local authorities, requesting geographic and fleet size changes to their e-scooter trials. All 13 applications were approved as of 8 October 2024.

Local highway authorities are responsible for maintaining the highway. This includes the removal of graffiti from publicly owned highway assets, such as bridges, traffic signs, and street furniture, as well as council-owned and other public buildings. The Department has no plans to extend this requirement to privately owned structures adjacent to the highway.

However, we do expect private owners of structures to act to remove offensive graffiti. If graffiti or flyposting is on private property, councils can issue a Defacement Removal Notice to the property owner, which requires them to remove the graffiti within 28 days.

Outside London pedicabs can be licensed as taxis. Pedicabs cannot be licensed as a private hire vehicle as legislation defines a private hire vehicle as a motor vehicle. The Department for Transport issues guidance on licensing taxis and private hire vehicles to authorities who should consider the recommendations made and their obligation under the Regulators’ Code to carry out their activities in a way that supports those they regulate to comply and grow. The Best Practice Guidance to licensing authorities in England sets out that where there is local interest in providing pedicab services, licensing authorities should make appropriate adjustments to their licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles to accommodate these requests. Subject to the legal requirements, it is for licensing authorities to consider the appropriate licensing requirements to operate a pedicab under a taxi and taxi driver licence.

The Department does not hold data on the number of pedicabs licensed as taxis in England.

Outside London pedicabs can be licensed as taxis. Pedicabs cannot be licensed as a private hire vehicle as legislation defines a private hire vehicle as a motor vehicle. The Department for Transport issues guidance on licensing taxis and private hire vehicles to authorities who should consider the recommendations made and their obligation under the Regulators’ Code to carry out their activities in a way that supports those they regulate to comply and grow. The Best Practice Guidance to licensing authorities in England sets out that where there is local interest in providing pedicab services, licensing authorities should make appropriate adjustments to their licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles to accommodate these requests. Subject to the legal requirements, it is for licensing authorities to consider the appropriate licensing requirements to operate a pedicab under a taxi and taxi driver licence.

The Department does not hold data on the number of pedicabs licensed as taxis in England.

The income from fees for providing information about keepers of vehicles registered on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) database is shown in the table below:

These fees are set to cover the costs of providing services to its customers.

The specific information requested about commercial parking companies is not held. The DVLA does publish information about who it shares its data with on GOV.UK. This includes volumes for enquiries made through the keeper at date of event (KADOE) service which provides details of the registered vehicle keeper on a specified date. This report includes electronic enquiries made by parking companies and can be viewed using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/who-dvla-shares-data-with.

I shall be the duty Minister tomorrow, and I look forward to dealing with this matter.

Subject to its parliamentary passage, the Pedicabs (London) Bill will confer powers onto Transport for London (TfL) to regulate London’s pedicab industry.

It will be the responsibility of TfL to design and implement a regulatory regime. However, TfL will be required to conduct a consultation prior to bringing regulations forward, and Government expects this consultation would include details of the proposed licensing framework.

The Government paper “Connected & Automated Mobility 2025: realising the benefits of self-driving vehicles in the UK” sets out government’s plans to support the development and deployment of safe self-driving vehicles in the UK. This includes proposals for a comprehensive regulatory, legislative and safety framework.

The Department is committed to these plans and will introduce primary legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.

It is not a sudden leaving of his job—the chief executive has announced that he is going to go in September. We have a clear plan in place: the experienced chair of HS2 will step up to be executive chairman for the period while we are searching for a successor, so the leadership of the organisation will be in hand. As I said, Mark Thurston has done a very good job in getting the organisation into delivery of phase 1, and he himself has said he wants to hand over at this point to enable continuity as the project moves into the next phase of delivery.

Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge, needs, and circumstances. The Government has no powers to override local decisions in these matters.

By working with the UK Roads Leadership Group and other sector bodies, the Department for Transport encourages local highway authorities to be innovative by, for example, using different materials or new machinery; or by developing new ways of working. The Department engages regularly with local authorities to discuss and disseminate the results of trials of this sort and supports innovation in other ways including through the ADEPT Live Labs programme that is funded by the Department.

In terms of wider pothole prevention, a Lane Rental Scheme (LRS) is a tool to help highway authorities reduce the impact of works taking place on the busiest roads at the busiest times – those are likely to include key junctions and other pinch-points, plus the busiest and most congested stretches of road. Under an LRS, utility companies (and others undertaking Street works) working on such roads at peak times are required to pay a daily charge to the local highway authority for the duration of their works.

The charges paid to the local authority responsible for the scheme may be used to pay the costs for running the scheme, with any surplus monies raised to be spent in ways for purposes intended to reduce the disruption or other adverse effects arising because of works, including road defects created by utility companies.

Managing traffic on local roads is the responsibility of local traffic authorities. They are subject to the Network Management Duty, which requires them to manage their roads to deliver ‘expeditious movement’ for all traffic including pedestrians. They have a wide range of tools already available to them to manage congestion and traffic flows.

There are a range of independent estimates of the impact of road congestion financially. They range between hundreds of millions of pounds and billions of pounds; my hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Government are not taking any action to increase congestion. Many schemes, for example active travel schemes, which are regarded by some—by some—as schemes that increase congestion, actually reduce it. He will notice, however, that some schemes put in place under the emergency active travel fund two or three years ago during the pandemic have been revised. I think local authorities are coming to realise that those were somewhat inexpeditiously put in place and we hope they will continue to do so.