Written questions by Holden.

If she will list all visits undertaken outside the UK by i.) ministers ii.) officials from her Department or it's arms length bodies, since 4 July 2024; and, for each such visit, to state (a) the number of i.) ministers ii.) officials in attendance at each visit and their grade, and (b) the total cost of the visit.

Information on overseas travel by Ministers is published quarterly and can be accessed by using the following link:DfT: ministerial travel and meetings - GOV.UKInformation on expenses including for overseas travel by the DfT's senior officials is also published quarterly and can also be found using the following link:DfT: senior officials’ business expenses, hospitality and meetings - GOV.UK

Whether her Department has assessed the potential impact of the Wheels to Work scheme on youth unemployment; and what steps she is taking to support that scheme.

I refer the Rt Honourable Gentleman to the answer given on 3 February 2026 to question number 108310.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2026 to Question 108309, in which month the upcoming national strategy for integrated transport is expected to be published.

The Department is committed to publishing the integrated national transport strategy shortly, which will set the long‑term vision for domestic transport across England.

Pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2026 to Question 110889, when the shore power trial at Portsmouth International Port began; what the outcomes have been; and whether any evaluation has been produced.

The shore power demonstrator trial at Portsmouth International Port was publicly awarded nearly £20m of R&D funding in September 2023. Portsmouth International Port began delivery of the project shortly afterwards as part of the UK SHORE Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure (ZEVI) competition.Most civil and electrical infrastructure works within the port side boundaries of Portsmouth International Port are now complete and the multi-berth shore power units are now on the berths. In November 2025, a successful dry connection test (without the provision of electricity) was completed, where one of the shore power units was plugged into Britanny Ferries’ Guillaume de Normandie vessel.Separate to the UK SHORE funded project, Portsmouth International Port accepted a connection offer from Scottish and Southern Electricity (SSE). This connection offer was for a 15 Megawatt grid upgrade to secure the grid capacity for the shore power units. The Port is awaiting final details from SSE on energisation of the grid upgrade.No specific evaluation for this project has yet been completed as the demonstration phase isn’t complete. A technical study is underway for all ZEVI projects, including Portsmouth, that will analyse the data generated throughout the multi-year demonstration period.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2026 to Question 107165, in which month the final text of the National Policy Statement for Ports is expected to be published.

I expect the final text to be laid in March 2026.

With reference to her oral contribution of 9 December 2025 in the debate on the Railways Bill, Official Report, column 207, how the £150 million figure relates to the £663 million per year efficiency saving projected for 2028–29 in the Departmental Efficiency Plan.

The oral contribution on 9 December 2025 in the debate on the Railways Bill referred to savings from management and performance fees payable to private sector operators. These savings are factored into the Department's Spending Review settlement but are not included in the published Departmental Efficiency Plan.

Pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2026 to Question 107166, what information her Department holds on level crossing performance, safety incidents and disruption.

Safety at level crossings on the mainline railway is the statutory responsibility of Network Rail, which monitors and records performance, safety incidents and disruption to help inform mitigation measures. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), as the independent safety regulator, also collects, scrutinises and publishes data on level crossing incidents and enforcement activity.My Department does not hold a separate dataset on level crossing performance. We rely on Network Rail’s operational data and the ORR’s published statistics, which together provide a comprehensive picture of safety and disruption at level crossings.

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2026 to Question 107163, what information her Department holds on airport kerbside drop-off charges.

There is no requirement for airports or airport car park providers to provide details of drop-off charges to the Department. We regularly engage with airports on surface access strategies and drop-off charges form part of these wider discussions. Information about individual airports' car parking and drop-off charges is available on their respective public websites.

Pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 105896, whether equivalent gross efficiency and implementation cost breakdowns have been produced for other components of the Departmental Efficiency Plan, including regulated settlements and corporate initiatives.

As set out in the Departmental Efficiency Plan, the department plans to deliver efficiencies of £663m in 28/29. We do not currently hold a breakdown on how these efficiencies breakdown by gross efficiencies and implementation costs in regulated settlements and corporate initiatives.

How paragraph 3.9.2 of the draft National Policy Statement for Ports will be applied by decision-makers when considering development consent for port infrastructure.

We are currently considering the views received from consultation on, and Parliamentary scrutiny of, the draft revised National Policy Statement for Ports, and will lay a final text in Parliament in due course. In line with the recommendation of the Transport Select Committee, we are considering further guidance on how developers assess carbon emissions as part of Environmental Impact Assessments.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2025 to Question 95968, for what reason there is a difference between the estimates of the fiscal cost of freezing rail fares (a) as set out in that Answer and (b) the figures published in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook, November 2025.

The difference is due to a difference in rounding. The estimates provided in the Department’s previous response were sourced from the published Budget document, where numbers are rounded to the nearest £5m. The OBR choose to round figures to the nearest £1m in their own publications, including their Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in November 2025.

What percentage weighting is given to social value in the evaluation of bids under each Government-funded scheme supporting the procurement of new buses, including zero-emission, electric, hydrogen and hybrid buses.

Social value, through community benefits, was one of the criteria considered when assessing the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) 2 funding announced in March 2024. The strategic case, including community benefits, had a 10% weighting. The published criteria can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-zero-emission-bus-funding-zebra-2/apply-for-zero-emission-bus-funding-zebra-2 . Previous rounds of ZEBRA funding did not explicitly assess social value. Through the UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel, which this Government launched in March 2025, my department is working with the sector to explore how best to consider social value in future bus procurement.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 108459 on Department for Transport: Artificial Intelligence, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of AI-enabled initiatives operating on a test-and-learn basis not delivering the expected benefits on the corporate initiatives efficiency target.

Please see the previous response to Question 108459 which answers this question.

Pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2025 to Question 93460 on Roads: Safety Barriers if she will publish the (a) location and route section, (b) date granted, c) reason of each departure from standard; what plans she has for upgrades to rigid concrete barrier.

The locations, routes and dates of approval for the departures from standard allowing steel crash barrier to be replaced with new steel barrier, rather than concrete, are as follows:M4 Junctions 13-14: 20/08/2025M6 Junction 37-38: 12/05/25M5 Junctions 23-24: 24/04/24A1(M) Junctions 37-38: 02/12/24 The reason for permitting departures from standard allowing the replacement of life-expired steel barrier with new steel barrier and not concrete barrier is due to the affordability of concrete barrier schemes – this can be either due to the cost of the concrete barrier in isolation or the additional works which would be required in order to change the barrier provision from steel barrier to concrete barrier. Plans for upgrades to rigid concrete barrier: Given the availability of new higher-containment modular precast concrete barriers, and higher-containment steel barriers, a tiered approach has now been adopted for the renewal of existing central reserve barriers.  The highest tier is the provision of rigid, higher-containment concrete barrier.  This can be relaxed to the provision of a non-rigid, higher-containment concrete barrier or a higher-containment steel barrier. However, this is only permitted if supported by a documented justification and risk assessment.

Whether the Motor Insurance Taskforce examined motorcycle insurance as part of its work leading to the Final Report published on 10 December 2025.

The taskforce was given a strategic remit to set the direction for government policy, in order to identify short- and long-term actions that may stabilise or reduce motor insurance premiums, but not the cost of motorcycle insurance specifically. The scope of the taskforce was agreed by ministers at the Department for Transport and HM Treasury, as the co-chairing departments.

With reference to her Department's research and analysis document entitled Factors influencing multi-modal public transport use, published on 29 January 2026, what was the total cost of commissioning and producing the research; how much of that cost was spent on external contractors and consultants; which organisations and suppliers were contracted to deliver the research; and from which budget and programme was the work funded.

The research report on ‘Factors influencing multi-modal public transport use’ was published on 29 January 2026. The work was conducted in full by the external research contractor, Verian (previously Kantar) and was commissioned as part of the ‘TROO0282 - Qualitative Research Call Off’ contract, details of which can be found on the GOV.UK Contract Finder. The project was funded under the Department’s Science, Research and Support budget, as presented in the 2024/25 financial estimates.

Whether her Department is considering mandating the TechSafe framework as a national safety, competence and assurance framework to support implementation of the Automated Vehicles Act and related vehicle technology regulation.

The Department is currently running a public Call for Evidence in support of the regulatory framework for automated vehicles. Responses to this Call for Evidence will inform a public consultation on the proposed regulations later in the year. The Department encourages those with views or evidence on frameworks such as TechSafe to respond to the Call for Evidence.

Pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 105894, what estimate the Department has made of the proportion of efficiency savings attributed to regulated settlements that arise from funding constraints imposed by the Office of Rail and Road rather than from operational productivity improvements.

As set out in Question 105894, the Office for Rail and Road do not set funding constraints as these are determined via the overall funding settlement.

For each month since November 2025, how many driving test centres recorded the maximum waiting time of 24 weeks for a practical car test; and if she will publish a list of those test centres for each month since.

The answer of 9 January 2026 to Question 101472 provided information on which driving test centres had a waiting time of 24 weeks in each month from July 2024, including for November 2025.The answer of 22 January 2026 to Question 104863 provided information on which driving test centres had a waiting time of 24 weeks in December 2025.The attached Excel document shows how many driving test centres had a waiting time of 24 weeks for a practical car driving test, in January 2026.

Pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2026 to Question 107278, what items of hospitality were provided at that reception; and if she will publish the relevant food and drink invoices and procurement contracts.

The items of hospitality provided at the Department for Transport Operator Group’s (DFTO) parliamentary reception on 19 January 2026 were: canapés, tea and coffee, bottled water, and various soft drinks totalling £1,646.99. As this was below the contractual minimum catering spend of £2,365, an additional charge of £718.01 was applied. Room hire, a service charge, a facility fee, and an AV package made up the remainder of the cost published in the Answer to Question 107278. Relevant documents including invoices and the procurement contract will be published in due course, as set out in Cabinet Office guidance for electronic invoicing and payments under the Procurement Act 2023.