Lord Davies of Oldham
Main Page: Lord Davies of Oldham (Labour - Life peer)
Lord Popat
My Lords, the Government do produce figures on people wearing, or not wearing, helmets. About 18% of children do wear helmets. It is therefore important to work to avoid accidents in the first place and make cycling safer through redesigning junctions, increasing awareness, training cyclists and motorists and encouraging cyclists to take simple steps such as wearing high-visibility clothing and helmets.
Lord Davies of Oldham (Lab)
The noble Lord will recognise the importance of cycle safety. If we are to encourage people to use bikes more, particularly for commuting into our cities and towns, we have got to make things safer. Yet when it came to the question of resources, raised by my noble friend Lord Berkeley, the Minister evaded the issue, as did his counterpart in the Commons after a major debate two weeks ago. Do the Government not recognise that to make cycling safe, expenditure is necessary? It does not have to be a great deal, but expenditure is necessary and it would behove the Government to respond to this. On a personal note, cycling down the River Lea for seven miles most mornings I always think that the safety device I need is not a helmet but water wings.
Lord Popat
My Lords, let me take the question of expenditure first. The previous Government spent £2 per person; currently, we are spending £5; in our eight cycling cities we are spending £10. We have our cycling delivery plan and the final report will be published. It is our aspiration to spend £10, or even more, by 2020-21. We want to see more cyclists on our roads.