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17 July 2008 : Column 620W—continued
The information is published on the Department’s website in table 7.1a and 7.1b in Transport Trends 2007 edition, at:
Roads: Gloucestershire
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how much extra funding has been requested by Gloucestershire County Council under the emergency capital highways maintenance scheme in the last two years; [218661]
(2) on what date Gloucestershire County Council last applied for extra funding under the emergency capital highways maintenance scheme; [218662]
(3) when she expects to make a decision on the (a) eligibility for and (b) level of any extra support available to Gloucestershire County Council under the emergency capital highways maintenance scheme. [218663]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I have today announced £6.5 million of capital highways maintenance funding for Gloucestershire county council to assist with their recovery from last summer's floods. This is in addition to £10.048 million that I announced in March this year, and brings the total funding from my Department to £16.548 million. This sum represents the total amount of funding requested by the county council in their claims of 20 December 2007 and 13 June 2008.
Roads: Safety Measures
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what improvements her Department has made to road safety since 2005. [219920]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Road Safety Strategy includes three targets.
By 2010 we want to achieve, compared to the average for 1994-98:
a 40 per cent. reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents (KSIs);
a 50 per cent. reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured; and
a 10 per cent. reduction in the slight casualty rate, expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres.
The second review of the Government’s Road Safety Strategy details the actions taken towards achieving the casualty reduction targets for 2010 and is published on the DFT website at:
The latest results on road safety statistics for 2007 have been published on the DFT website. Overall, deaths have fallen by 7 per cent. compared to 2006, to 2,943. Serious injuries were down 3 per cent. KSIs are now 36 per cent. below the 1994-98 average baseline, and child KSIs fell by 6 per cent. and are now 55 per cent. below the baseline.
Roads: Surveying
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) for what reason the CHART visual survey data collected by local highway authorities on principal and classified roads across England for the 2007 national road conditions survey were not collated and published; [213386]
(2) for what reason the CHART visual surveys on all roads were discontinued; what account was taken of the advice of highways officers on the UK Roads Board road performance management group in making the decision; and if she will make a statement; [213387]
(3) what consultations her Department conducted with professional groups and local highway authorities before the decision to discontinue CHART visual surveys on all roads was taken; [213388]
(4) what assessment she has made of the effects of the lack of 2007 visual survey data for principal and classified roads on long-term trend studies into road condition; and if she will make a statement; [213389]
(5) what methodology will be used to survey the condition of unclassified roads in 2008; [213390]
(6) what information is available for members of the public to determine whether road conditions, other than for roads under the control of the Highways Agency, are improving or deteriorating. [213516]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government recognise the need for national data which may be used to monitor whether the condition of roads is improving or deteriorating. But there has been mounting dissatisfaction over a number of years with the quality of CHART visual surveys, which are based on judgments of conditions by engineers, and a programme of work is taking place supported by the Department and the UK Roads Board to develop more sophisticated machine-based surveys.
The 2006 statistical report on road conditions stated that CHART data would not be collected in 2007 for classified roads. More extensive and detailed data would instead become available from machine scans of the road surface (SCANNER surveys), the same source used by local authorities for reporting best value performance indicators (BVPIs) on classified road condition. This same source will be used for authorities reporting against their local area agreements. The Department has commissioned research to develop appropriate methods for producing national estimates from these complex data, which should be available in 2009. At that point, it will be possible to produce several years’ results at once to allow analysis of trends in the condition of classified roads.
Indicators from the BVPI reporting regime were also included in the statistical report “Road Conditions in England 2007”. These can be compared with the BVPI results which were reported in previous statistical reports.
CHART visual surveys for the unclassified network continued until 2007-08, but, following consultation with the LGA and with the UK Roads Board, have not been requested in 2008-09. Most local authorities rely on their own programme of inspection and asset management to determine the condition and maintenance needs of unclassified roads, and there has been a declining response rate to the request for CHART data to support the national survey, with only two-thirds of local authorities responding in 2007-08.
The Road Conditions in England statistical report published in June 2008 provided members of the public and highway officers with the latest information on road conditions. The next statistical report, intended for publication in 2009, will include several years’ data on classified roads. For unclassified roads, DFT will continue to work with the UK Roads Board to determine how best to measure and survey road conditions with an intention of national surveys every three to five years.
Members of the public interested in the condition of their own authority’s roads will have available annual indicators published as part of local area agreements. Many authorities also publish their own local data. We have encouraged authorities to prepare asset management plans for local authority, and have announced that at least £15 million will be available to help them do so in 2009-10.
Roads: Tolls
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) whether her plans for a national road pricing scheme will be limited to roads under the jurisdiction of the Highways Agency; [209464]
(2) how much her Department has spent on identification and development of the technologies required to implement a national road pricing scheme in the last five years; [209465]
(3) what her most recent estimate is of the cost of implementing a national road pricing scheme; [209466]
(4) which consultants and contractors her Department is working with on matters relating to a national road pricing scheme; and which were so engaged by her Department in each of the last five years; [209468]
(5) whether her Department has identified preferred bidders for implementation of national road pricing trials; [209469]
(6) how much her Department has allocated for trials of a national road pricing scheme; and how much of this has been spent to date; [209470]
(7) when she expects work to commence on the installation of equipment required for national road pricing trials. [209472]
Ms Rosie Winterton: In the four years since work began on following up the Feasibility Study of Road Pricing in the UK, the Department has spent £9.3 million on technical and professional advice to inform the way that pricing could be used to tackle road congestion; for example in the local charging schemes that are being developed by local authorities.
Our priority, now and over the next decade, is to tackle congestion, focusing on where it is a problem—in towns and cities and on motorways. The Command Paper ‘Roads—Delivering Choice and Reliability’, published on 16 July, sets out how we intend to do this.
Our plans for testing technology are set out in the same document. We expect that the Demonstrations Project we are about to commission will lead the way to developing better systems that could support urban schemes, possibly over a wider area than have been developed to date, as well as informing our thinking on managing motorway capacity.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport in which areas road pricing trials will take place. [209471]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement, ‘Roads—Delivering Choice and Reliability’, made by the Secretary of State for Transport, on 16 July 2008, Official Report, columns 32-34WS. It will be for the contractors to propose how and where best to demonstrate their capabilities.
Rolling Stock
Mrs. Villiers:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 7 July 2008, Official Report, column 1194W, on rolling stock, if she will publish the quantitative analysis her Department
carried out to determine how many new rail carriages should be provided to tackle capacity problems on the rail network under the High Level Output Specification statement of July 2007. [218839]
Mr. Tom Harris [holding answer 14 July 2008]: Illustrative train service enhancement options were developed by the Department for Transport to demonstrate that the HLOS capacity requirements can be delivered. This analysis was published on the Department’s website in July 2007 to accompany the Rail White Paper. It can be accessed at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/about/strategy/whitepapers/whitepaper cm7176/railwphlsospecimen
Exact detail of estimated deployment of rolling stock numbers is not given for commercial reasons.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate she has made of the percentage of forecast passenger growth to 2014 which will be carried by the 1,300 new carriages planned to be provided by that date. [218840]
Mr. Tom Harris [holding answer 14 July 2008]: The 1,300 extra carriages are estimated to be sufficient to carry the forecast growth of an extra 80,700 morning peak passengers in London and English urban areas between 2009 and 2014. They will also meet the majority of the peak growth on the long distance routes.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 7 July 2008, Official Report, column 1194W, on rolling stock, what estimates her Department made in preparation of the 2007 Rail White Paper, of the proportion of the 1,300 extra carriages announced in the White Paper that would be (a) Pendolinos for the West Coast Main Line and (b) Thameslink Programme carriages. [218841]
Mr. Tom Harris [holding answer 14 July 2008]: Of the 1,300 carriages, 106 are estimated to be Pendolinos for the West Coast Main Line. The extent to which the Thameslink carriages overlap with the 1,300 cannot yet be accurately estimated since it depends on a number of factors including the outcome of the High Level Output Specification agreed with the Train Operating Companies.
Schools: Speed Limits
Mrs. Riordan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether her Department has conducted research into the likely effect on the number of children and parents choosing to walk or cycle to school of the speed limit around their schools and homes being reduced to 20 miles per hour. [220008]
Jim Fitzpatrick:
The Department has not carried out specific research on the impact that 20 mph zones would have on increasing walking and cycling. However, the hon. Member may be interested in our Links to Schools programme, which provides walking and cycling routes from residential areas to schools via the National Cycle Network. Our monitoring of these links shows twice as much cycling to school and 8 per cent. more walking to school. We have already spent over £18
million on this programme since 2005 linking up over 600 schools and plan to extend it to a further 500 schools by 2011.
The Department has commissioned a new research project on local road safety policy and practice, and information about the implementation of 20 mph zones will be collected from local authorities as part of this study.
This new project, titled “Local road safety evaluation and action learning” was commissioned in February 2008 and will take three years, with an interim report due in March 2009. The research is likely to include a survey of local authorities, which will cover 20 mph zones and other local road safety issues.
Mrs. Riordan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of implementing 20 mph zones in the vicinity of (a) nurseries and (b) schools. [220137]
Jim Fitzpatrick: There has been no assessment of the effectiveness of 20 mph zones specifically in the vicinity of nurseries and schools. However, the Transport Research Laboratory conducted two reviews of 20 mph zones in 1996 and again in 1998.
The 1996 review found that 20 mph zones which incorporated traffic calming measures achieved an average 9 mph reduction in vehicle speeds, annual accident frequency fell by 60 per cent. and overall reduction in child accidents of 67 per cent.
The 1998 review looked at wider issues in terms of vehicle speeds and included 20 mph zones and 20 mph limits where there was lesser or no traffic calming. This found reductions in vehicle speeds were minimal without traffic calming.
The Department has however recently commissioned a new research project on local road safety policy and practice, and information about the implementation of 20 mph zones will be collected from local authorities as part of this study.
Stansted Airport
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment she has made of the likely effect of conditions in the economy on proposals to build a second runway at Stansted Airport. [219340]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The most recent assessment of the economic case for the additional capacity at Stansted airport supported in the “Future of Air Transport” White Paper was reported in “UK Air Passenger Demand and CO2 Forecasts”, available at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/environmentalissues/ukair demandandco2forecasts/
We expect to provide an update to this report, taking account of revised economic projections, when we announce policy decisions on the future development of Heathrow airport later this year.
Tolls
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when she expects to make a decision on whether to introduce national road pricing. [210602]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to her today (UIN 209464).
Transport: Greater London
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when she next expects to meet the Mayor of London to discuss transport in London. [217773]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Secretary of State met with the Mayor of London recently and expects to continue the programme of regular meetings established with his predecessor.
Duchy of Lancaster
10 Downing Street: Cost Effectiveness
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what requirements there are on 10 Downing Street to make Gershon efficiency savings. [217399]
Mr. Watson: The Prime Minister’s Office forms an integral part of the Cabinet Office. The original requirements for Departments were set out in Sir Peter Gershon’s “Releasing resources for the frontline: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency”, published by HM Treasury as part of SR2004. The review, including the original Cabinet Office requirement, can be found on the HM Treasury website:
Copies are available in the Library of the House.
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