Transport
Decarbonisation
(Edinburgh North and Leith) (SNP)
What recent steps his Department has taken to help facilitate
transport decarbonisation in line with the Government’s
commitments (a) to the Paris agreement and (b) for COP26.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport
()
The transport decarbonisation plan will set out transport’s
contribution to net zero. We are also delivering ambitious
international COP26 campaigns.
[V]
When does the Minister consider that there will be enough public
charging points available for electric-powered vehicles to ensure
that no domestic user requires an internal combustion engine? I
would settle for her best estimate of when urban motorists could
be fossil-free. How quickly does she think the network can be
built?
We have ambitious plans to meet our target dates of phasing out
the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. At the moment, a
driver is never more than 25 miles away from a rapid charge point
anywhere on England’s motorways, and there are 36 rapid charge
points available per 100 miles, but we obviously need to go
further. We are working through our rapid charging fund and we
will make further announcements very shortly on this topic.
(Bristol East) (Lab) [V]
We know that the Government’s road-building expansion will lead
to an estimated 270,000 additional tonnes of carbon entering the
atmosphere by 2032. However, in an answer to a recent question,
the Minister told me that she was content that the Government’s
road-building expansion programme was compatible with the net
zero target. Will she tell me how she reached that view when the
Secretary of State overruled his own civil servants on the need
to conduct an environmental review of the policy? And does she
agree that if the Government are serious about reaching net zero
and setting an example before COP26, that review should be
carried out now?
I thank the hon. Lady for her question. She will know that we are
serious about decarbonising the entire transport sector. We will
publish our transport decarbonisation plan in spring this year,
as we have committed to do, which will set out how we will
decarbonise the entire sector, including roads. I just say to her
that, of course, we do need roads, but we want the vehicles
driving on them to be electric, and we are investing in electric
vehicles—cars, vans, buses and lorries.
(Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP) [V]
Over a year has gone and we have seen neither hide nor hair of
this transport decarbonisation plan, or the national bus
strategy, or the £3 billion on green buses. In contrast, Scotland
is fast becoming a world leader in transport decarbonisation,
with higher take-up of electric cars, an impressive charging
network, actual investment in electric buses, on which everyone
under the age of 22 is now able to travel free, and a much
praised rolling rail electrification scheme. Spring is an elastic
term in parliamentary terminology. When will we actually see the
decarbonisation plan, and when will we actually see zero-emission
buses being ordered?
I remind the hon. Gentleman that we have invested £2.8 billion to
support the transition to electric vehicles, and a lot of that
money has gone to Scotland. The funds for the plug-in car grants
are available UK-wide, and, as I said, we will publish the
transport decarbonisation plan in spring, as we have promised.
Electric
Vehicles
(Ynys Môn)
(Con)
What steps his Department is taking to increase the use of
electric vehicles.
(South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)
What steps his Department is taking to increase the use of
electric vehicles.
(Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)
What steps his Department is taking to increase the use of
electric vehicles.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport
()
By 2035, all new cars and vans need to be zero emission at the
tailpipe. We are investing £2.8 billion to support this
transition.
Pentraeth Automotive on my island constituency of Ynys Môn is at
the forefront of electric vehicle provision locally. Will the
Minister consider providing support so that businesses like
Pentraeth Automotive can retrain their skilled mechanics to
ensure that electric vehicles can be maintained safely?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the UK is at the
forefront of the electric-vehicle industry, and I want her
constituency to play its part. We are working with the Institute
of the Motor Industry to ensure that the UK’s mechanics workforce
is well-trained and has the skills needed to safely repair
electric vehicles. Through consultation with the automotive
sector, the IMI has developed Techsafe, a register and
professional standard for electric vehicle technicians that the
Office for Zero Emission Vehicles has endorsed.
[V]
To be able to truly embrace the EV revolution, does my hon.
Friend agree that there needs to be a comprehensive network of
on-street residential charging points close to where people live,
especially where they have no dedicated parking space? Will she
work with local authorities to start this work now, so that that
is one less barrier to EV adoption?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right and we are already working
closely with local authorities. Our on-street residential charge
point scheme has so far supported more than 105 different local
authorities to fund more than 3,800 charge points. We have
recently announced that £20 million will be made available under
this scheme for the year 2021-22. We are working so closely with
local authorities to ensure the maximum take-up of the scheme,
because we do not want a lack of charging infrastructure to be a
barrier to anyone wanting to transition to an EV.
Following on from the previous question, that charging
infrastructure concern can be a barrier to purchase. We know that
most owners of electric cars charge their vehicles at home. That
often relies on their having a garage or drive, which is not
always appropriate or possible in a block of flats or in a very
urban area.
Will my hon. Friend keep the House updated on progress on
charging facilities in the more built-up urban areas, because
that is absolutely critical if we are to see significant take-up
of these vehicles?
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. He is absolutely right
that we need to tackle all these barriers, which is why we have
recently announced that we are changing the criteria for our EV
charging schemes to include small businesses, leaseholders and
those in rented accommodation, especially flats, to accelerate
uptake. Worth up to £50 million, the updated schemes will
complement a further £20 million that we are providing for our
on-street charging scheme.
(Ilford
South) (Lab)
I am pleased to hear the Minister talk about electric vehicles,
but the reality is that we have seen little in the way of
concrete measures from this Government. We were promised 4,000
zero-emission buses by 2025, but we have heard little more about
that—or, indeed, about the national bus strategy, which was
expected months ago and has still yet to materialise.
It has now been a year since the Government published their
transport decarbonisation plan. The Secretary of State himself
said that
“Climate change is the most pressing environmental challenge of
our time”,
yet all we have had is dither and delay. Although last week’s
Budget saw the Chancellor freeze fuel duty for the 11th year
running, costing the taxpayer about £1 billion and flying in the
face of the commitment to tackle carbon emissions, this
Government have a legal obligation, lest we forget, to achieve
net zero carbon emissions by 2050. When will they start
delivering?
Let me politely disagree strongly with the hon. Gentleman on the
Labour Front Bench. I would need longer than this one simple
question to answer the allegations that he has put to me. Shall
we start with the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan? Shall we also
refer to the transport decarbonisation plan, which, as I have now
said three times, we will publish in the spring. The national bus
strategy, as my colleagues have reminded me, will be brought
forward very shortly. Not only that, but we are installing charge
points up and down the country. We have already committed to
phasing out petrol and diesel cars by 2030. We are leading the
world in this fight against climate change, and we will continue
to do so.
