Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to launch their new Road Investment Strategy; and whether lowering the drink-drive limit will be included as part of the strategy.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
DfT is committed to long term strategies for road investment. As announced in the October Budget, a decision was taken to postpone the start of the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), to allow Ministers time to make an assessment of priorities for roads. DfT will provide funding through an Interim Settlement to National Highways covering 2025-26, to allow for important maintenance and enhancement activities to continue. The planned start of RIS3 is April 2026 and the drink-drive limit will not form part of the RIS.
This Government takes road safety seriously, and we are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. Since the general election, the Department has begun work on a new Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade. The Department will share more details in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require registration plates on all (1) bicycles, and (2) adult-sized electric scooters
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government has no plans to introduce a mandatory registration scheme for cycle ownership. The costs of doing so would outweigh the benefits, and this would deter many people from cycling particularly if cyclists (including children) had to cover the costs of such a system. There would be many practical difficulties too: registration plates would need to be large enough to be seen by cameras and other road users, and there is not generally enough space on bikes to allow for this.
The Department is running trials of rental e-scooters to assess their safety and wider impacts. Trials e-scooters are required to carry a unique identifier that will aid with enforcement. Privately-owned e-scooters remain illegal during trials. We are carefully considering all future requirements for legal use of e-scooters.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) deaths, (2) serious injuries, and (3) other injuries, were suffered by (a) pedestrians, and (b) cyclists in England in each year since 2016, broken down by the speed limit on the road on which the accident occurred.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The number of deaths, serious injuries, and other injuries, which were suffered by pedestrians, and cyclists in England in each year since 2016, broken down by the speed limit can be found in the attached table.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce a default 20mph speed limit in England around all (1) schools, (2) university entrances, and (3) hospitals.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government does not have any plans to introduce default 20mph speed limits in England around schools, university entrances or hospitals.
Local authorities have the power to set 20mph speed limits where people and traffic mix; they are best placed to determine the speed limits for their areas, based on local knowledge and the views of the community. They are asked to have regard to the Department for Transport’s guidance ‘Setting Local Speed Limits’, which is designed to make sure that speed limits are appropriately and consistently set while allowing the flexibility to deal with local circumstances. The final decision is for the traffic authority, working with the police who would carry out any enforcement.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, whether in their assessment of the case for reducing the drink drive limit they took account of the fall in drink drive law enforcement levels in the last five years set out in the report from the Institute of Alcohol Studies.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government welcomes the report from the Institute of Alcohol Studies, but has no plans for lowering the drink drive limit in England and Wales.
Police have the powers they need to keep our roads safe, and latest Department for Transport figures show that fewer people died on British roads in 2015 as a result of drink driving than in any year since records began. It is for Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners to decide how to deploy their resources in response to local priorities.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimates they have made of the costs of road traffic accidents associated with alcohol to (1) the NHS, (2) the emergency services, (3) the police, (4) the justice system, (5) the benefits system, and (6) individual victims.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Department for Transport publishes estimates of the average cost to society of road traffic accidents as part of the Transport Analysis Guidance (called WebTAG). The cost is broken down into six elements. Three of these elements are casualty-related:
The remaining three are accident-related:
The human cost element is estimated using evidence of individuals’ willingness to pay for a marginal reduction in their risk of suffering a road traffic accident. The other components are estimated using official data sources.
The Department has not made any estimate of the costs of road traffic accidents to the justice system or the benefits system. However, it is likely that these will be small in comparison with human and lost output costs.
The table below gives an estimate of the costs for each of the six WebTAG elements for all reported personal-injury accidents in Great Britain where at least one driver was over the alcohol limit. The figures are based on accidents that occurred in 2014 as this is the most recent year for which final drink drive accident statistics are available. The totals are in 2016 prices.
Total value of prevention of reported accidents when at least one driver is over the alcohol limit, Great Britain, 2014
£million in 2016 prices | |||||||
Accident severity | Police costs | Insurance and admin | Damage to property | Lost output | Human costs | Medical and ambulance | Total |
Fatal | 4.4 | 0.1 | 2.7 | 150.6 | 287.3 | 0.3 | 445.4 |
Serious | 2.1 | 0.2 | 4.9 | 25.9 | 178.0 | 15.7 | 226.7 |
Slight | 2.7 | 0.6 | 15.0 | 17.6 | 84.0 | 7.5 | 127.4 |
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| 799.5 |