I am delighted to hear of the hon. Gentleman’s enthusiasm for decarbonisation. He is right to support the excellent Wrightbus, which manufactures electric buses in Northern Ireland. Through the bus expert manufacturing panel, which is chaired by the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood), who has responsibility for roads and buses, we are working with mayors to find ways of supporting the UK manufacture of electric vehicles, and I look forward to working with the hon. Gentleman and Wrightbus on that.

The Government recognises that aviation has a range of environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions and non-CO₂ impacts which could have warming effects on the climate; and local noise and air quality impacts.

The Government is committed to delivering greener transport and is taking action to reduce or mitigate these environmental impacts from aviation. This includes but is not limited to supporting sustainable aviation fuel through new laws, getting the airspace modernisation programme underway which will see quicker, cleaner and quieter journeys, and providing up to £2.3 billion of funding over 10 years to support the development of low and zero emission aerospace technologies through the Aerospace Technology Institute.

The government sets noise controls at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. These controls reflect the need to balance the impact from airports on communities with the benefits that they bring to the UK economy. At other airports, appropriate noise controls are set locally through the planning system. Major airports are also required to produce noise action plans every five years. Current plans cover the period 2024-2028 and have been published on airports’ websites.

Air Traffic Control services in the UK are operated by NATS En Route Ltd, under a licence issued by the Secretary of State and regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

NERL is required to assess and make decisions about how it best manages UK airspace, including in relation to its systems and resourcing levels needed to safely manage air traffic. The safety of aircraft and passengers is always NERL’s overriding priority in discharging its responsibilities.

The Government is investing £7.5 billion to support industry and drivers to switch to zero emission vehicles, including the £2 billion Electric Car Grant which has helped over 135,000 drivers choose a sustainably manufactured zero emission car. A further £877 million has been committed to the Zero Emission Van Grant and Zero Emission Truck Grant until 2030, to support traders and businesses to transition and cut their dependency on volatile fossil fuels. We work closely with industry to address concerns and misconceptions about electric vehicles and promote consumer confidence.

Air passenger rights remain a priority for the Government.

UK passengers continue to have strong rights under Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 in the event of delays, cancellations and denied boarding, including rights to compensation in some circumstances.

In June 2026, the Government introduced the Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill. The Bill would provide powers to review and strengthen air passenger rights, including those relating to flight disruption, through secondary legislation where evidence indicates this is necessary. Any future changes would be based on merit and subject to public consultation.

The UK aviation market operates predominantly in the private sector. UK airports and airlines are therefore responsible for ensuring appropriate contingency plans are in place to minimise potential disruption. The Department regularly engages with the UK aviation sector around resilience issues and to gain assurance of their preparedness plans, including ahead of peak travel periods.

In addition, as well as making air travel cleaner and quieter, one of the major benefits of the airspace modernisation programme is greater resilience, which will help to reduce delays and disruption in the future.

The recent Spending Review confirmed £10.2billion for rail infrastructure enhancements over the next four years. Network Rail’s funding for the operation, maintenance and renewal of the network from 2024 to 2029 was set at £44.1 billion, excluding enhancements. This government remains committed to this settlement.

The multimodal UK freight and logistics sector delivers reliable, resilient and efficient movement of goods to support UK business and the consumer. The government recognised the importance of the sector in our Industrial Strategy (2025). We have recently committed £27 billion through the third Road Investment Strategy (2026-2031), including enhancements to the A66 between Penrith and Scotch Corner benefiting east-west freight across the Pennines, including from North and Irish Sea ports, and the Lower Thames Crossing which will improve journey reliability for freight arriving from the EU, including goods using the “land bridge” to Northern Ireland.

On rail the TransPennine Route Upgrade and East West Rail will bring significant freight efficiency benefits and the Railways Bill includes a duty on Great British Railways, ministers and the Office of Road and Rail to promote rail freight. The draft National Planning Policy Framework (published Dec 2025) requires local planning authorities to give “substantial weight” to the economic benefits of proposals for development where this would support improvements in freight and logistics. At a more granular level we are working with the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum to maintain efficient freight flows via the Short Straits through the development of plans to manage the introduction of new import controls and the implementation of EES at the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel.

The Department expects train operators to plan and operate appropriate capacity in response to expected demand. Department for Transport Operator works with train operating companies to consider measures to address crowding, for example strengthening services where rolling stock allows, adjusting peak timetables, increasing staff presence on platforms and improving queue and passenger flow management at busy stations.

Passenger rail performance improved in Great Britain in the first quarter of this year (January to March 2026) compared to the first quarter of last year (January to March 2025), with a 'Time to 3' average of 86.4 per cent (recorded station stops arrived at early or less than three minutes after the scheduled time), and a cancellations average of 3.2 per cent. Improving performance is a priority for this Government, and we expect train operators to continue to address the root causes of poor performance to deliver a more punctual and reliable service for passengers.

Communities throughout the UK depend on reliable ferry services. Ferry services largely operate in a commercial environment. While the Government does not formally assess their reliability, it works closely with the port and ferry sector to avoid disruption to passengers if possible and to mitigate it when necessary. If a journey is disrupted, passengers are entitled to claim compensation. This process is overseen by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency oversees a rigorous system for the survey and inspection of the safety and working conditions of all commercially operating vessels visiting UK ports.

Through the Employment Rights Act 2025, the Department has introduced new powers to regulate certain matters relating to safe working on services calling at UK ports at least 120 times a year.

Communities throughout the UK depend on reliable ferry services. Ferry services largely operate in a commercial environment. While the Government does not formally assess their reliability, it works closely with the port and ferry sector to avoid disruption to passengers if possible and to mitigate it when necessary. If a journey is disrupted, passengers are entitled to claim compensation. This process is overseen by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency oversees a rigorous system for the survey and inspection of the safety and working conditions of all commercially operating vessels visiting UK ports.

Through the Employment Rights Act 2025, the Department has introduced new powers to regulate certain matters relating to safe working on services calling at UK ports at least 120 times a year.

The Government recognises that emissions from shipping can affect air quality in coastal areas, particularly near ports and busy shipping routes, and is taking action through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce emissions from ships. This includes measures such as the North Sea Emission Control Area (ECA), which significantly strengthens air pollution controls for ships in the North Sea and the English Channel. Through the IMO we have also agreed for a North-East Atlantic ECA to come into force in 2027, which will improve air quality for coastal communities and mean all UK waters will be covered.

Road safety is a matter the Government takes very seriously and National Highways is committed to further improving safety on England’s motorways and major A-roads. Using collision data, research and risk assessments, National Highways identifies patterns and types of collisions causing harm to road users and uses this evidence when reviewing speed limits on its roads, to ensure they are suitable for the road characteristics. National Highways also supports compliance with speed limits through its partnership working with the Police.

The Department is strongly committed to reducing drink and drug driving on roads, and uses the THINK! Campaign in England and Wales as a key pillar in the Department’s commitment to improving road safety. The Department assesses the effectiveness of these campaigns through evaluation of awareness, recognition, reported behaviour change and attitudes towards risky driving behaviours.

THINK! is the Government’s flagship road safety campaign. Drink driving and drug driving are priority issues the campaign addresses, particularly among young men aged 17 to 24 who are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the road than any other age group.

Against a backdrop of consistent long-term funding for THINK! campaigns, the number of killed or seriously injured casualties involving a young car driver has fallen 61% in the last 20 years, from 12,190 in 2004 to 4,740 in 2024. Whilst it is not possible to directly attribute changes in road deaths to any single factor, research shows that there have been high levels of self-reported action amongst young people as a result of seeing a THINK! campaign, with 9 in 10 taking action, including changing their own driving behaviour.

In the summer of 2025, as a direct result of seeing THINK!’s recent campaigns on drink driving and the promotion of THINK! 0%:

• 59% of young men said they chose not to drink any alcohol before driving or not to drive if they had been drinking.
• There was an 8 percentage point increase in the number of young men saying they would abstain completely from alcohol if they were driving.
• There was a significant increase in the proportion of young male drivers who said they are very likely to have a 0% alcohol alternative when driving, up from 31% to 42% post-campaign.

In November 2025, THINK! launched a new marketing campaign to raise awareness of drug driving, in response to the increasing trend of collisions involving a driver impaired by drugs. The campaign delivered positive results from its first run and was the most noticed THINK! campaign in recent years:

• 72% of young men recognised the campaign.
• 40% of those who did said they changed their own driving behaviour as a result, including not driving if they had taken drugs or finding an alternative form of transport if they had.
• There was also a 7 percentage point increase in young men’s awareness that driving on drugs can lead to a criminal record.

Enforcement of drink and drug driving legislation, and how available resources are deployed, is an operational matter for individual Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to determine in conjunction with local crime and policing plans, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.

Data on road collisions involving personal injury are reported to the Department by police forces in Great Britain via the STATS19 system. The latest year for which provisional data is available is 2025.

In 2025, 1,556 people were killed and 28,355 people were seriously injured in reported road collisions in Great Britain.

The Department recognises that excessive speed increases both the risk of collisions and the severity of their outcomes. Effective enforcement of speed limits can therefore play an important role in encouraging compliance and improving road safety.

The Department has not made a separate assessment of the effectiveness of speed limit enforcement in isolation. However, the Government’s Road Safety Strategy sets out the role of robust enforcement as part of a wider Safe System approach to reducing deaths and serious injuries on roads in Great Britain.

The Government recognises that more needs to be done to ensure public transport is accessible to all and allows disable people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity.

Our Bus Services Act 2025 includes a comprehensive package of measures to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of local transport. Through the Act, we are helping authorities to provide safer and more accessible bus stations and stops; mandating more streamlined disability training for bus drivers and frontline staff and requiring local authorities to regularly review the accessibility of their bus networks through the development and publishing of a Bus Network Accessibility Plan.

We are committed to improving the experience for disabled passengers on rail services and that is why we published the Department’s roadmap to an accessible railway alongside the Railways Bill. It sets out what we are doing now to improve the day-to-day travelling experience for disabled passengers in the lead up to Great British Railways being established.

The Railways Bill will also establish a Passenger Watchdog, protecting the rights of disabled passengers by setting consumer standards including on accessibility, monitoring passenger experience and service delivery, investigating persistent issues, and advocating for improvements. We are also continuing to install accessible routes at stations through our Access for All programme and have completed a programme to install platform edge safety tactiles on every platform in the country.

We are also committed to developing an Accessible Travel Charter. The Charter is a commitment to a shared vision for accessible travel. It will set out what disabled travellers can expect from their journeys, share best practice across organisations and create greater consistency in end-to-end journeys for disabled travellers.

On 12 June, the Government published the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, which outlines the Government’s vision for walking, wheeling and cycling to be safe, easy and accessible choices for everyone in England. Also published on 12 June, Active Travel England’s delivery plan, Worth Every Step, sets out how they will work with partners to turn that strategy into action.

Between 2025 and 2030, Active Travel England is administering more than £760 million of devolved funding for walking, wheeling and cycling schemes across England, which will improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.