Speeches by Greenwood.

“This is something that we are absolutely focused on doing. Obviously, there is always competition for what goes into our legislative programme because this Government are ambitious about the things that we want to do. You will have seen in our own Department that we have had an early focus on the rail system and on bus…”

“Including wheelchair users, absolutely. We will take that away and look at what more we might do and what the options might be.”

“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…”

“I am the Minister for Local Transport.”

“We certainly want to draw on it. I would be very clear that there is a need for fundamental change to the regulations to put them all in a sensible place. We have the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976), and then we just have a series of sticking plasters really to tr…”

“There would be a very strong incentive for your taxi to comply with the ULEZ regulations.”

“Alongside the combined authority area.”

“I absolutely agree that emissions are a big issue, particularly in our towns and cities. It is perhaps less of an issue for a taxi and PHV operating in a much more rural area. There is an argument for saying that if you are a licensing authority primarily looking after a city or urban area, that it is reasonable to inc…”

“I do not have a strong view on that, but those are some of the issues we would want to consider.”

“Absolutely.”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Dowd; I know you have a deep personal commitment to road safety. I congratulate the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr Dillon) on securing this debate and thank him for raising the vital issue of road safety and vulnerable users, specifically horse riders. It is clear that t…”

“My hon. Friend makes an important point, and I agree with him. As has already been noted, despite the investment of £2.4 million in paid advertising raising road users’ awareness of the changes to the code, it is clear that more action is needed. As set out in the strategy, we are considering options to improve the saf…”

“My hon. Friend has made his point very well. We will also continue to encourage safer road user behaviours in order to improve safety for all vulnerable road users, including horse riders, motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians and road workers. Our flagship road safety campaign, THINK!, will continue to do that, alongsi…”

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

“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…”

“The requirements that we put on for licensing of drivers and operators are neutral. I also wonder whether the distinction between app-based operators and traditional operators is still valid. In my own local authority, I have been using DG Cars for donkey’s years. Back in the day, you would phone up and book one. Now t…”

“I suspect it is somewhat variable, not least because obviously under the current arrangements the enforcement can primarily happen on only the taxis and PHVs that are licensed by the authority, rather than just anyone that is operating in the area. When we spoke to Wolverhampton, it said that it was open to—I cannot re…”

“Frankly, it was rather reluctant about the role it had ended up with. I do not think it was ever the intention to become the go-to licensing authority, and it does not have any choice. If someone turns up at Wolverhampton, asks to be licensed and meets the standards, they will be licensed there. There is a bit of a myt…”

“In terms of national minimum standards, the English Devolution Bill would give us those powers. Part of the very reason for seeking to use the English devolution Bill is in order that we could act promptly on the issues that Baroness Casey raised with us. Without having had this discussion with Liz about the resources …”

“I hope my hon. Friend will send my condolences to those in her constituency who have been affected by such a terrible loss. There is no question but that too many people are killed and seriously injured on our roads, and we intend to act to reduce the number as soon as possible.”