Speeches by Alexander.

“I would be very happy to keep this Committee informed. This obviously is news that has emerged in Norway over the last couple of days, and my officials are looking at this case. We do take national security issues with the utmost seriousness. We are working with the intelligence community, as you said, to make sure tha…”

“I am very disappointed that the adoption of the IMO net zero framework has been delayed, because we played a very important role in developing that over a number of years. We remain committed to working with other international partners, whether that is at the IMO, through COP30, which has obviously happened recently, …”

“We are going to progress work on a new maritime strategy. In the last couple of months, I have been persuaded that this is an important piece of work to do. We had a very successful London International Shipping Week a couple of weeks ago. There have been quite a lot of changes since the last maritime strategy, so we w…”

“It would be very challenging because local areas have very differing economies. You will see local areas with very differing levels of car ownership, different demographics and different needs. In a period when we have good but finite funding for the buses, i.e. we are spending nearly £1 billion this year on supporting…”

“It is my understanding that those discussions have started between officials in DFT and MHCLG about earlier sharing of information about utility connections. It is at quite an early stage still, so I would be very happy to share more information about that, as that progresses, with the Committee.”

“We share an ambition, which is to see improved public transport connectivity across the country. We probably differ slightly on the best means by which to get there. We agree on the end and that is why I mentioned the bus franchising pilots that we are running in York and North Yorkshire, Cheshire West and Chester, and…”

“Getting the balance right between reducing disruption and enabling essential works is a perennial problem, is it not? We are taking action as a Government, in that we are increasing fines for works that are overrunning. That can be up to £10,000 now for works that are running into weekends. The new fine level will come…”

“We are looking at how we devolve decision making on lane rental schemes to mayoral strategic areas. There is a question about the appropriate geography over which lane rental schemes could operate. I hope to be saying more about that devolution of decision making on lane rental schemes in due course.”

“It is an Act.”

“We need operators to have a higher level of ambition and to make sure that they are clearly complying with the law as it is set out. On enforcement in particular, if you take the example of rail, the ORR has taken enforcement action recently. In the summer, it issued enforcement action against Northern, the train opera…”

“I appreciate the point you are making about the onus often being on the user and the disabled person to take action. In the Railways Bill, you will have seen that we are proposing a strengthened passenger watchdog, which will be able to act as that consumer champion, and very much so on the issue of accessibility. We a…”

“I do not think that there is pushback. I do not see enforcement as being the long-term solution to the problem. I want all transport operators to be complying with the law and meeting their responsibilities.”

“We secured £280 million through the spending review to fund the access for all programme at stations across the country. You may recall that the previous Government, just before the election, announced 50 schemes that they were going to take forward for some initial scoping and early design work. Network Rail has been …”

“I was quite struck when reviewing some of the evidence that was given to your Committee by transport operators about the complexity of the landscape when it comes to the requirements that they have to fulfil on accessibility. Bringing together in one place, in the accessibility charter, some very clear information will…”

“It is about having a pipeline of schemes and being clear about prioritisation within that pipeline of schemes. Sometimes that will mean having difficult conversations with some colleagues in Parliament or some communities, who all want to see improvements to their station. I know how long it can take to get these schem…”

“All those things that you talk about are important to passengers. My first point, when we were going through the spending review process and in my discussions with Treasury colleagues, was to get the right balance between protecting vital bus services and having access to bus routes that people need in order to access …”

“I want us as a Department to give certainty to local authorities about the funding that they will have available to them to support bus operators in their local area. This has often been done on a year-by-year basis, so it is very difficult to plan. It is very difficult for bus operators to think about their commercial…”

“It has been striking the right balance, because affordability is important to people. It obviously costs a significant amount of money for Government to reimburse operators for the difference between the £3 cap and what they would normally have been charging. I do hear what you are saying about the concerns of some ope…”

“I would like to thank Laura Shoaf, who has chaired shadow Great British Railways over the last year. Essentially, she has been working on and convening a forum in which the leadership of Network Rail, DFTO and parts of the DFT can come together to make sure that we are making progress in advance of GBR being set up, be…”

“I might ask Jo to pick up on the detail of that. Just to give you the high-level reason for it, we want to make sure that we have all the people who are going to be key to driving performance in one organisation, and to reduce the number of organisations that will be involved in transferring staff into the new Great Br…”