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7 Jan 2008 : Column 11W—continued
Roads: Accidents
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many road accidents resulting in a fatality in Copeland involved (a) drivers under 25 years of age and (b) drivers within 12 months of passing their driving test in the last five years. [176643]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The number of reported fatal road accidents involving drivers aged under 25 in Copeland in each of the last five years is as follows:
| Number of fatal accidents | |
Information on the length of time that drivers involved in personal injury road accidents have held a driving licence is not available.
Roads: Children
Mr. Leech: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment she has made of the merits of roadside pedestrian training schemes for children. [175813]
Jim Fitzpatrick: We funded the £9 million Kerbcraft child pedestrian training research project in 64 English local authorities. The project provided training for five to seven-year-olds in three important road-crossing skills. The project was fully evaluated; we have disseminated interim evaluation results which show that trained children made statistically significant improvements to key behaviours, compared to untrained children. We will disseminate best practice to all local authorities.
Mr. Leech: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if she will extend roadside pedestrian training schemes for children on a national basis. [175814]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Local authority road safety officers (RSOs) have the responsibility of supporting and co-ordinating road safety education, training and publicity; it is for them to consider how best to meet their local needs.
DfT will disseminate good practice in roadside child pedestrian training schemes to local authorities and
educators, based on, but not exclusive to, the Kerbcraft child pedestrian training scheme as it was piloted and evaluated in England and Scotland between 2001 and 2007.
Roads: Lorries
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps she is taking to reduce congestion caused by heavy goods vehicles on roads. [175635]
Jim Fitzpatrick: To reduce congestion the Department provides direct grant funding to support the use of rail and water freight where appropriate. This year these mode-shift programmes are expected to remove 1.1 million lorry journeys from the roads. The Government also promote efficiency within the road sector through the Freight Best Practice and other programmes.
Roads: Repairs and Maintenance
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many community groups she has met to discuss road improvements since her appointment; how many road improvement schemes she has visited since her appointment; and which representatives of road haulage businesses she has met since her appointment. [168683]
Ms Rosie Winterton: As part of routine business Ministers will meet a wide range of organisations including Members of Parliament, local authorities and community organisations in relation to road improvement schemes. In addition, during visits to regions, Ministers will also see a number of road schemes that have been completed or which are being promoted by the Highways Agency and local highway authorities.
Ministers have over recent months met a number of community groups, MPs and local councillors to discuss road improvement schemes, across England.
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how much was spent on (a) road building and (b) road maintenance in Copeland in each year since 1997; [176641]
(2) how much was made available to support road improvement schemes in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland constituency in each year since 1997. [176731]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Since 1997, the Department has contributed funding as set in the following table to the following Highways Agency major road schemes on the trunk road network in Cumbria.
A595 Parton to Lilyhall Improvement Scheme;
A590 High and Low Newton Bypass;
M6 Carlisle to Guardsmill Extension;
A66 Stainburn and Great Clifton Bypass; and
A66 Temple Sowerby Bypass and Improvement to Winderwath.
| Highways Agency funding | |
| Cost (£ million) | |
Cumbria county council as local highway authority is responsible for local transport in Cumbria including the Copeland constituency. The council is currently promoting the Carlisle Northern Development Route which will be partly funded through the Government’s private finance initiative with a departmental contribution of £142.8 million towards the total cost.
The following table shows the funding through the Local Transport capital settlement that has been allocated to Cumbria county council since 1997. It is for Cumbria to determine how allocations are spent, having regard to its Local Transport Plan.
| £ million | ||||||||
| 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
Prior to 2000-01, the Government funding support for local transport investment by Cumbria county council (including for major schemes and major maintenance) totalled £3.748 million in 1997-98, £2.384 million in 1998-99 and £5.311 million in 1999-2000.
The following table sets out the total reported revenue and capital spend both by Cumbria county council and Copeland district council on road maintenance in each year between 1997-98 and 2006-07.
| £ million | |||||||||||
| Cumbria council | Area of spend | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| n/a = Not available. | |||||||||||
Roads: Safety
Mr. Leech: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment she has made of UK road safety measures against EU member state benchmarks; and if she will make a statement. [175822]
Jim Fitzpatrick: We keep abreast of developments in road safety best practice across the EU (and indeed, the world) on a continual basis, and maintain regular dialogue with our international counterparts. In addition we produce statistics showing how the UK compares with other countries, including other EU member states, as part of the yearly report Road Casualties Great Britain.
The UK is one of the safest countries in the EU in terms of overall casualties. In 2005 there were 5.5 road deaths per hundred thousand population, which is the fourth lowest in the EU; or 4.9 road deaths per billion passenger-kilometres, which is the second lowest in the EU.
Roads: Tolls
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the cost has been to date of the consultancy contracts for road pricing policy; and how much is committed for future costs. [176896]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
Since the then Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Edinburgh, South-West (Mr. Darling) committed in 2004 to lead a national debate on the practicality of road pricing as a highly-effective response to rising congestion, the Department has spent some £6.5 million on consultancy contracts including professional advice on possible technical designs,
system architecture and cost modelling. Another £1.0 million is currently contractually committed through to the end of 2007-08.
Although further consultancy expenditure on road pricing policy is envisaged in 2008-09 and beyond, the amount will depend on our requirements, yet to be determined, and no further expenditure is contractually committed.
South West Trains
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport by how many (a) Class 442 and (b) Class 444 units South West Trains has reduced its main line express rolling stock fleet since the renewal of the franchise; and what percentage of the fleet the reduction represents. [176779]
Mr. Tom Harris: 24 Class 442 units were taken off lease before the start of the Stagecoach South Western Trains (SSWT) Franchise that commenced in February 2007. The class 442s represented 7 per cent. of the total South West Trains (SWT) fleet under the previous franchise. No Class 442s ran in service under Stagecoach South Western Trains.
45 Class 444 units are on lease to Stagecoach South Western Trains and no class 444s have been cut from mainline express services.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if she will make it her policy to require South West Trains to put Class 442 back in service in the interests of passenger comfort. [176780]
Speed Limits
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the average speed is of London bound traffic on the M25 during the morning and evening peak hours between junctions 26 and 30. [176786]
Mr. Tom Harris: The average speed of traffic on the M25 from Junction 26 to 30 is set out in the following table.
| Junctions | Peak | Average speed (mph) |
The data are for weekdays only, for the hours of 7:00 to 10:00 (inclusive) and 16:00 to 19:00 (inclusive).
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