If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

Since I was last at the Dispatch Box, my Department has announced £94 million in funding to boost cycling in eight cities and four national parks. My right hon. Friend the Minister of State has today published a consultation on the long-term property compensation measures for phase 1 of HS2. The Government have always been clear that they intend to go further than the existing discretionary scheme in order to assist affected property owners. The consultation proposals that we are setting out today are designed to do just that.

I am also announcing today important changes to the discount scheme, which will help local people who use the Dartford-Thurrock crossing, following a persuasive campaign by my hon. Friends the Members for Dartford (Gareth Johnson) and for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price). From March 2014, those registered on the schemes will be able to make unlimited trips over the crossing for just £20 a year. For the first time, we will include privately registered vans, offering a welcome boost to small businesses.

The Wrexham-Bidston line, in one of the most successful industrial regions in the UK, north-east Wales and west Cheshire, is crucial to the development of the region’s economy. What comfort can the Secretary of State give to local businesses who have expressed the concern to me that HS2 will divert investment in any proposals in that region?

As we pointed out earlier in Question Time, we are making significant investment in the whole railway system. That will come sooner than HS2. We are spending £37.5 billion between 2014 and 2019. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales has also talked to me about the line my hon. Friend has just referred to, and I will be looking at how improvements can be made to that line as well.

Pinch-point funding for our road network is very important. Ingleby Barwick in my Constituency has significant traffic issues, especially where the A174 meets Thornaby road. Will the Secretary of State work with me to find a solution to make life a bit better for my constituents?

I certainly will work with my hon. Friend and meet to discuss this scheme with him. It was part of the applications made originally for the local pinch-point fund, but it did not fall in the first round of that. The scheme was very successful and over-subscribed, but I assure my hon. Friend that we are looking hard at ways in which we might go further, and I will be happy to talk to him about his particular scheme.

Returning to the subject of HS2, will the Secretary of State confirm—we have been talking about the importance of integrating the line—that residents in Chesterfield who want to take advantage of the benefits of HS2 will not have to drive down to Toton to do so, but will have a link from Chesterfield railway station?

Although Mr Skinner rightly pointed out that Toton is in Nottinghamshire, probably even he could throw a brick from Derbyshire into Toton.

Further than you.

Possibly even further than me. As the hon. Member for Chesterfield knows, the line from Chesterfield goes through the Toton works, so one would imagine that there will be a good connection from Chesterfield and other stations to the new station we are planning at Toton.

I wonder whether the Secretary of State is aware that the Hastings to Ashford rail line is the only unelectrified line on the south coast line. Will he join me in calling for the electrification of this line so that my constituents can look forward to more reliable and better link times to London?

As my hon. Friend is aware, Network Rail is currently undertaking an electrification study, looking at all routes, including Hastings to Ashford, to identify potential candidates for electrification, which could be carried out in the next rail control period from 2019 to 2024. Any scheme would have to demonstrate a business case before being considered, but would then be given full consideration.

Three years on from the axing of Cycling England and its £60 million annual budget, this Tory-led Government promised £148 million for cycling. That has turned out to be an average of £38 million per year until 2016, with local authorities expected to find the rest. In comparison, £28 billion is planned to be spent on roads. Does the Minister really believe that this is the right proportion and that this Government really are the most pro-cycling ever?

We are the most pro-cycling Government ever. If the hon. Lady does not believe that, she should look at some of the comments from the cycling groups, who have warmly welcomed the huge investment—the record investment—that has taken place under this Government. That is a real step change in cycling, and I would have thought that she welcomed it rather than criticise it.

Will the Minister confirm that northern commuters on the trans-Pennine routes are still in line to benefit from the promised 40 extra carriages, and will he continue to look into increasing capacity on those northern commuter routes?

I am delighted to confirm that commuters on the trans-Pennine express are in line to benefit from increased capacity provided by the extra 40 carriages to be introduced on the Manchester to Scotland route and the reallocation of diesel trains. The new electric trains are scheduled to enter passenger service between December 2013 and May 2014. I have no doubt that this will bring benefit to my hon. Friend’s constituents and others along the line of route.

Will the rail Minister look seriously and urgently at the situation at Finsbury Park station, which is jointly run by Transport for London, London Underground and Network Rail? There are welcome new platforms for the overground but there is no step-free access for the underground. The station is the busiest outside central London and it is dangerously overcrowded at many times. The Mayor is proposing changes from 2017. That is too late; we need them now.

I will certainly look carefully at what the hon. Gentleman has said. I will consult the Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend Stephen Hammond, and Transport for London. I hope that we can deal with this as successfully as we did when the hon. Gentleman and I last had a meeting in the Department for Transport, when we resolved another issue extremely satisfactorily.

The £100 billion the Government have set aside for infrastructure projects is warmly to be welcomed. May I reiterate to my right hon. Friend the importance of the north-west relief road around Shrewsbury and the importance that we attach to this vital project for the town, which is bringing great economic benefits to the whole of Shropshire and mid-Wales?

Once my hon. Friend starts a campaign he never loses an opportunity to mention it. He raised this point with the Prime Minister and he has a meeting planned with me. We are spending £9 million on pinch points to tackle existing congestion around the road. I look forward to my meeting with him, where I am sure he will make his case persuasively.

One in three blind or partially sighted people are spending about £30 a month on taxis because buses cannot accommodate them through audiovisual equipment. What are the Government doing to change that?

We give strong support to the bus industry through financial support directly to the operators, through the bus service operators grant, and through local authorities. Our reforms to the bus system through, for example, the BSOG reforms and the extra money provided for green buses are giving a welcome boost to the bus industry. That means that passenger numbers are roughly where they were at the end of the previous Government’s time in office.

I recently met my constituent John Letch, owner of Car Contacts Ltd, which sells second-hand cars, many of which it imports from Northern Ireland. Mr Letch tells me that in recent months the company has experienced severe delays in the re-registering of cars by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, delaying their onward sale and putting the company under financial strain. Will the Minister meet me and Mr Letch, and other traders, to discuss this matter urgently?

My hon. Friend refers to applications that were centralised at the DVLA in Swansea in July. There were initially some delays, but on 9 August a special team was created to deal with the more complex applications, and I think that that is now beginning to resolve the situation. However, I would of course be happy to meet him and his constituents.

The consultation on the potential closure of the Driver and Vehicle Agency office in Coleraine and the moving of 300 jobs to Swansea closed this morning. Although I do not expect the Minister to have the answers to the consultation yet, will he agree to meet me, my hon. Friend Mr Campbell and a small delegation of workers who would be affected by the closure? More importantly, will he take this opportunity to remove the smear levelled at workers that there were sectarian issues that would lead to the closure of the office when none has ever been reported?

The hon. Gentleman is, of course, right that I will not comment on the result of the consultation. He is referring to the package of documents that were published as part of the consultation, including an equality assessment. I apologise for any offence that was inadvertently caused and accept that the wording could have been clearer. I must stress that there was no intention to imply that any of the staff at the DVA might be biased in any way. Indeed, the equality assessment concludes that there is nothing in the proposal on the centralisation plans that would give rise to any bias or any perception of bias. Finally, I would, of course, be delighted to meet him, Mr Campbell and a group of their constituents.

My constituents look forward to the electrification of the Great Western main line. When does the Secretary of State expect to begin a consultation on any reconfiguration of services, especially in the Bristol travel-to-work area, that will be made possible by electrification and the new trains that come with it?

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s welcome for our planned investment. I will write to him about the more detailed question of the timetable so that he will be well aware of it.

I want to take the railways Minister back to his earlier statement about the east coast franchise. Could he be precise about the innovations that I and my fellow travellers will see if the process goes ahead?

We will see, when we make the invitations to tender, exactly what proposals come back from rail companies, but the simple fact is that this Government—and the previous Government, for that matter—have seen huge growth in our railways as a result of the innovation of the train operating companies. This is not new; it was well established under the previous Government and continues to be under this one.

Several hon. Members:

rose—

Order. Transport questions always tend to bust the box office, I am afraid: demand exceeds supply. The last ticket goes to Jake Berry.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Following on from the question asked by my hon. Friend Mr Nuttall, will the Secretary of State confirm that he will continue to work with me and my hon. Friend for improvements on the M66, which is a key commuter route into Manchester for east Lancashire and Bury North, both of which have played their part, with their manufacturing-based economy, in reducing unemployment in our area?

I was very pleased to join my hon. Friend in his Constituency a few months ago, where he explained to me some of the great difficulties he has with regard to communications and the transport links for his constituency. It is incumbent on us all to look at how we can address those particular problems, improve the transport links and, where we can, improve the road network as well as, if possible, the rail network. I understand that my hon. Friend has been fighting a valiant campaign, but that it has drawn a blank from the county council.