Questions to the Mayor
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Appendix 5 Questions to the Mayor 24 February, 2020 WRITTEN ANSWER REPORT Subject: MQT on 24 February, 2020 Report of: Executive Director of Secretariat Safeguarding Wharves Question No: 2020/0347 Caroline Pidgeon Please set out the evidence in relation to each of the eight wharves that have seen their safeguarding directions removed in Mayoral Decision 2569 and set out how this decision fully complies with Policy S1 15 of the draft London and 7.26 of the current London Plan, which requires safeguarded wharves to be used for the purposes of waterborne freight handling, with any redevelopment for other land only being acceptable when the wharf is no long viable or capable of being made viable for waterborne freight handling. Answer for Safeguarding Wharves The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 Officers are drafting a response London Living Wage Question No: 2020/0348 Caroline Pidgeon Further to data provided in response to Question 2019/4021 please provide the most recent data for both the total number and proportion of jobs in Greater London paying less than the London Living Wage. London Living Wage The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 In 2019 the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reported that 839,000 or 19.8 per cent of employee jobs pay below the London Living Wage. The Mayor urges businesses to voluntarily sign up to paying the London Living Wage. It is the right thing to do to ensure that hardworking Londoners are rewarded with fair pay. It can also make business sense as London Living Wage employers can see improvements in productivity, staff morale and retention as a result of employees feeling valued. Please see the attached table which sets out the number and proportion of employee jobs paid held by those working in London aged 18 or over that are paid below the London Living Wage between 2005 and 2019 using the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Number of employee jobs below Percentage of employee jobs below Year the London Living Wage the London Living Wage 2019 839000 19.8 2018 871000 20.5 2017 814000 19.4 2016 802000 19.5 2015 798000 20.0 2014 755000 19.1 2013 669000 17.4 2012 611000 16.7 2011 542000 14.8 2010 471000 13.0 2009 454000 12.8 2008 469000 12.8 2007 446000 12.7 2006 406000 12.0 2005 446000 13.3 Please note that these estimates cover only employee jobs i.e. self-employed jobs are not covered. The estimates are produced using the methodology recommended for living wage estimates, as explained here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworking hours/methodologies/calculatingtheproportionofemployeejobsunderthelivingwageamethod ologyarticle Bus usage (1) Question No: 2020/0349 Caroline Pidgeon What is TfL’s estimate of the required increase in bus usage that would be required to ensure that your Transport Strategy objective is met of 80 per cent of journeys being made by active transport or public transport by 2041? Answer for Bus usage (1) The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 Officers are drafting a response Bus usage (2) Question No: 2020/0350 Caroline Pidgeon According to Department for Transport statistics published on the 22 January 2020 the number of local bus passenger journeys in England was 4.30 billion in the year ending September 2019, a 0.4% decrease when compared with a year earlier. However, in London bus use decreased by 0.8% in the latest year. What are the reasons for the fall in bus usage being faster in London than the rest of England? Bus usage (2) The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 In 2018/19, 2.2 billion bus journeys were made in London, half the national total. Although year on year demand declined by 0.8 per cent, bus use per head of population remained at over five times the level of use in the rest of England. Figures on bus use should be considered alongside travel data on other active, efficient and sustainable modes including Underground, rail, walking and cycling, usage of which increased in 2018.. Bus use is driven by a number of factors including economic growth, service levels, fares, operational performance and the availability of alternative travel options. We believe that some of the factors that accounted for the decline in bus use include people transferring from buses to walking, cycling and rail modes as enhancements such as line upgrades and Night Tube have come on stream. Traffic speeds in London have declined from 9.7mph in 2012/13 to 9.3mph. This aligns to an increase in the number of private hire vehicles and delivery vans; recent data suggests that private hire vehicles could account for 15 per cent of car traffic in London and 40 per cent of car traffic at certain times in central London, while light goods vehicle kilometres have increased by 16 per cent in the last four years. Since July 2019, seven new bus routes have been introduced in addition to a large number of outer London enhancements. It will take some time for these service changes to build demand from new routes and enhancements and be reflected in bus passenger journeys. Fatigue and Bus Driver Working Hours Question No: 2020/0351 Caroline Pidgeon A year ago in response to Question 2019/2084 you stated “London’s bus network is the most heavily monitored in the UK with respect to driver hours and I am satisfied that London bus drivers are not working excessively long hours.” Given the findings of the Loughborough University Report published in August 2019 and Unite the Union’s Consultative Ballot about Fatigue held on 7 Feb 2020, are you “still satisfied that London Bus Drivers are not working excessively long hours”? If so, please provide evidence to support your statement. Fatigue and Bus Driver Working Hours The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 As mentioned in my response toMayor’s Question 2019/2084, bus drivers’ hours are subject to legislation which helps avoid the risk of long continuous shifts and ensure suitable breaks. All bus operators must comply with these requirements as part of their operator licences. The Traffic Commissioner can investigate any concerns and revoke or restrict their licences if significant breaches are evident. Further monitoring by Transport for London (TfL) helps support this legislative compliance framework. The Loughborough University research published on TfL’s website detailed factors that may contribute to driver fatigue. TfL is now working with operators to take forward a programme to tackle the root causes and reduce fatigue as much as possible. First Group’s Failure to Approve TfL Fatigue Management Audit IA 17780 Question No: 2020/0352 Caroline Pidgeon In the documents contained in your delayed response to Question 2019/8811 there is a minute (page 83) which indicates Fatigue Audit IA 17780 was never approved by Tram Operations Limited. How is it possible that a TfL contractor which has been involved a catastrophic incident involving fatigued driving can refuse to approve a TfL Internal Audit which found that improvements on fatigue management were urgent and necessary? Answer for First Group’s Failure to Approve TfL Fatigue Management Audit IA 17780 The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 Officers are drafting a response 2019 Quarterly Bus Safety Data Question No: 2020/0353 Caroline Pidgeon In response to Question 2020/0012 TfL has published bus safety data for Quarter 2 and Quarter 3, but the new data is in an entirely different format and lacks the granularity of the previous 21 Quarters of published data. How is removing the name of the bus operator involved, the Borough in which it took place, the bus route and a host of important details about the victim and the mode of transport an “upgrade” that improves ”timeliness and accuracy in the long term”? When will TfL replace the Q2 and Q3 Quarterly data with data with the same format and granularity of the previous 21 Quarterly reports? Answer for 2019 Quarterly Bus Safety Data The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 Officers are drafting a response 2014 Data Missing from Bus Safety Data Release Question No: 2020/0354 Caroline Pidgeon On TfL’s bus data page why does the bus safety data release only include data from Quarter 1 in 2015? When will 2014’s Quarterly data be added to this data set? Answer for 2014 Data Missing from Bus Safety Data Release The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 Officers are drafting a response Overseas car drivers facing fines for entering the Low Emission Zone (1) Question No: 2020/0355 Caroline Pidgeon The LEZ is mostly aimed at lorries and vans which, if not compliant with the rules, are charged £100 a day. If the vehicle is from outside the UK and not registered with TfL beforehand I understand the fee is £200 a day. If it is not paid, it jumps to £500, then escalates to £750. On top of that, there are extra fees for the debt collectors. Will you investigate whether information about escalating fines is correctly communicated by TfL on its website and whether consideration is given to providing information in different languages? Will you also investigate whether accurate information is provided relating to cars which on some occasions are included? Answer for Overseas car drivers facing fines for entering the Low Emission Zone (1) The Mayor Last updated: 27 February, 2020 Officers are drafting a response Overseas car drivers facing fines for entering the Low Emission Zone (2) Question No: 2020/0356 Caroline Pidgeon To ensure the highest level of compliance with the LEZ and to avoid overseas visitors to London not mistakenly facing excessive fines and harming the reputation of London,