Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of road accidents in England in the last 10 years where potholes and poor-quality road surfaces were a cause.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Statistics on reported road injury collisions in Great Britain are published based on data reported by police via the data collection known as STATS19.
Within STATS19, reporting police officers can assign up to 6 factors which they believe may have contributed to the collision, including ‘poor or defective road surface’. Contributory factors are assigned based on the opinions of the reporting officer at the scene or within a short time of the collision, rather than a detailed investigation.
The number of collisions in each of the last 10 years with the factor ‘poor or defective road surface’ assigned is published in table RAS0701 on gov.uk and reproduced below:
Year | Reported road collisions in England with ‘poor or defective road surface’ assigned as a contributory factor |
2014 | 660 |
2015 | 544 |
2016 | 519 |
2017 | 465 |
2018 | 446 |
2019 | 437 |
2020 | 376 |
2021 | 429 |
2022 | 432 |
2023 | 532 |
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding by the RAC in February 2024 that council road maintenance in England dropped by 45 per cent in 2022–23 compared to the five years previously; and whether road maintenance levels have improved since then.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials meet regularly with local authority representatives and other experts in the road maintenance industry to discuss best practice. Ministers have also met with key stakeholder groups, including the Pothole Partnership which comprises organisations representing road users and industry.
The Department agrees that local highway authorities should focus on preventative rather than reactive maintenance activities, and this advice is set out in the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which is available online. The Department is committed to updating this guidance and has begun work to scope out urgently which parts need updating and how. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes, and encourages authorities to consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes or resurfacing of roads.
Decisions on how much to spend on their local highway networks each year are matters for local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Department for Transport collects and publishes on gov.uk each year data on authorities’ capital and revenue expenditure on their highway maintenance activities. The data shows that, at a national level, total spending on local road maintenance in the financial year 2022/23 was broadly similar to total spend in each of the previous five years.
This Government recognises the importance of well-maintained roads and has provided an additional £500m for highway maintenance for the year 2025/26 – a near 50% uplift on the current baseline. This has resulted in an 36% increase on average to individual local highway authority allocations, as well as providing highway maintenance funding top-ups to London authorities and mayoral areas already receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. These allocations can be found on gov.uk.
In addition, the Department is taking a number of steps to improve its understanding of the condition of local roads. It worked with the British Standards Institute and the highway sector to develop a new road condition data standard for local highway authorities, which was published last year. This will enable them to utilise new technologies, including AI, to identify potholes and other defects in their highway network more promptly.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve their understanding of the condition of local roads; and what plans they have to support local authorities to use exploit AI technologies that make it faster and easier to identify potholes.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials meet regularly with local authority representatives and other experts in the road maintenance industry to discuss best practice. Ministers have also met with key stakeholder groups, including the Pothole Partnership which comprises organisations representing road users and industry.
The Department agrees that local highway authorities should focus on preventative rather than reactive maintenance activities, and this advice is set out in the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which is available online. The Department is committed to updating this guidance and has begun work to scope out urgently which parts need updating and how. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes, and encourages authorities to consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes or resurfacing of roads.
Decisions on how much to spend on their local highway networks each year are matters for local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Department for Transport collects and publishes on gov.uk each year data on authorities’ capital and revenue expenditure on their highway maintenance activities. The data shows that, at a national level, total spending on local road maintenance in the financial year 2022/23 was broadly similar to total spend in each of the previous five years.
This Government recognises the importance of well-maintained roads and has provided an additional £500m for highway maintenance for the year 2025/26 – a near 50% uplift on the current baseline. This has resulted in an 36% increase on average to individual local highway authority allocations, as well as providing highway maintenance funding top-ups to London authorities and mayoral areas already receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. These allocations can be found on gov.uk.
In addition, the Department is taking a number of steps to improve its understanding of the condition of local roads. It worked with the British Standards Institute and the highway sector to develop a new road condition data standard for local highway authorities, which was published last year. This will enable them to utilise new technologies, including AI, to identify potholes and other defects in their highway network more promptly.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to meet experts in the road maintenance industry, including the RAC, Road Surface Treatments Association, the Road Emulsion Association, and the Asphalt Industry Alliance, to discuss best practice.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials meet regularly with local authority representatives and other experts in the road maintenance industry to discuss best practice. Ministers have also met with key stakeholder groups, including the Pothole Partnership which comprises organisations representing road users and industry.
The Department agrees that local highway authorities should focus on preventative rather than reactive maintenance activities, and this advice is set out in the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which is available online. The Department is committed to updating this guidance and has begun work to scope out urgently which parts need updating and how. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes, and encourages authorities to consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes or resurfacing of roads.
Decisions on how much to spend on their local highway networks each year are matters for local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Department for Transport collects and publishes on gov.uk each year data on authorities’ capital and revenue expenditure on their highway maintenance activities. The data shows that, at a national level, total spending on local road maintenance in the financial year 2022/23 was broadly similar to total spend in each of the previous five years.
This Government recognises the importance of well-maintained roads and has provided an additional £500m for highway maintenance for the year 2025/26 – a near 50% uplift on the current baseline. This has resulted in an 36% increase on average to individual local highway authority allocations, as well as providing highway maintenance funding top-ups to London authorities and mayoral areas already receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. These allocations can be found on gov.uk.
In addition, the Department is taking a number of steps to improve its understanding of the condition of local roads. It worked with the British Standards Institute and the highway sector to develop a new road condition data standard for local highway authorities, which was published last year. This will enable them to utilise new technologies, including AI, to identify potholes and other defects in their highway network more promptly.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which local authorities in England undertook preventative road maintenance, such as surface dressing roads to prevent potholes forming, in the last year; and what steps they intend to take to increase the amount of preventative road maintenance undertaken.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials meet regularly with local authority representatives and other experts in the road maintenance industry to discuss best practice. Ministers have also met with key stakeholder groups, including the Pothole Partnership which comprises organisations representing road users and industry.
The Department agrees that local highway authorities should focus on preventative rather than reactive maintenance activities, and this advice is set out in the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which is available online. The Department is committed to updating this guidance and has begun work to scope out urgently which parts need updating and how. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes, and encourages authorities to consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes or resurfacing of roads.
Decisions on how much to spend on their local highway networks each year are matters for local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Department for Transport collects and publishes on gov.uk each year data on authorities’ capital and revenue expenditure on their highway maintenance activities. The data shows that, at a national level, total spending on local road maintenance in the financial year 2022/23 was broadly similar to total spend in each of the previous five years.
This Government recognises the importance of well-maintained roads and has provided an additional £500m for highway maintenance for the year 2025/26 – a near 50% uplift on the current baseline. This has resulted in an 36% increase on average to individual local highway authority allocations, as well as providing highway maintenance funding top-ups to London authorities and mayoral areas already receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. These allocations can be found on gov.uk.
In addition, the Department is taking a number of steps to improve its understanding of the condition of local roads. It worked with the British Standards Institute and the highway sector to develop a new road condition data standard for local highway authorities, which was published last year. This will enable them to utilise new technologies, including AI, to identify potholes and other defects in their highway network more promptly.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which local authorities in England divert money from their roads budgets to fund other policy areas.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport allocates capital funding to local highways authorities to enable them to maintain and improve their respective networks, based on their local knowledge, circumstances, and priorities. The funding is paid out as a grant under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003, and is unringfenced. It is up to each authority to decide how best to spend it to fulfil its statutory duty under section 41 of the Highways Act 1980.
Revenue funding for highway maintenance is provided to local authorities each year by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement. This funding is also unringfenced.
The Department publishes maintenance expenditure on local roads on gov.uk each year based on local authority outturn receipts. These show that capital expenditure on the local highway network is consistently higher than the funding provided by the Department for highway maintenance activities, which suggests that generally local authorities are not using the capital funding provided by the Department for other purposes.
The Department intends to introduce new reporting requirements on local highway authorities for the 2025/26 financial year, which will require them to provide further information to ensure residents can see how they intend to use the funding provided by the Government.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of adults in England currently receive prescriptions for anti-depressants.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines Used in Mental Health statistical release includes information about prescribing in England for medicines classified within the British National Formulary section 0403, as antidepressant drugs. There were 6,873,381 total identified patients, aged 18 years old and over, in quarter two of 2024/25.
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) publishes population statistics for England on the ONS website. The estimated mid-year population for people aged 18 years old and over in England in 2023 was 45,691,677.
Based on the latest published data, the number of adults, those aged 18 years old and over, in England who received a prescription for antidepressant drugs in the quarterly period of July to September 2024 was 15% of the estimated 2023 mid-year population.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the cost to the NHS of anti-depressants in each of the past ten years; and how many they prescribed in each of those years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) provides the total number of prescription items of each medicine dispensed in the community in England. The following table shows the total number of items prescribed, based on information within the PCA and using British National Formulary Section 0403 for antidepressant drugs that have been dispensed in England regardless of where prescribed, as well as their net ingredient cost (NIC), for each calendar year from 2014 to 2023, and from January to November 2024:
Calendar year | Total number of items | Total NIC |
2014 | 57,149,109 | £265,008,698.97 |
2015 | 61,021,662 | £284,746,655.27 |
2016 | 64,703,639 | £266,562,024.17 |
2017 | 67,530,457 | £235,076,089.51 |
2018 | 70,873,979 | £202,526,719.66 |
2019 | 74,814,621 | £201,729,659.16 |
2020 | 78,866,866 | £352,682,885.77 |
2021 | 82,620,542 | £288,099,249.84 |
2022 | 85,404,864 | £224,648,497.13 |
2023 | 88,469,803 | £230,013,659.86 |
2024 | 84,251,563 | £207,585,360.44 |
Total | 815,707,105 | £2,758,679,499.78 |
The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold a single cost to the National Health Service. Total NIC is the amount that would be paid using the basic price of the prescribed medicine and the quantity prescribed, before any discounts, dispensing costs, or fees. It also does not include other costs to the NHS, such as those associated with purchasing or storing these medicines. The basic price is given either in the Drug Tariff or is determined from prices published by manufacturers, wholesalers, or suppliers.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the cost to the NHS of prescribing tablets to patients aged over 70 in each of the past ten years; and what assessment they have made of any unintended consequences of those patients combining multiple tablets.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Prescription data is collected by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) for the operational purpose of reimbursing and remunerating dispensing contractors for the costs of supplying drugs and devices, and providing essential and advanced services, to National Health Service patients.
The following table shows the total net ingredient cost (NIC) for prescription items with an oral route of administration, dispensed to patients aged 71 years old and over, for the financial years 2015/16 to 2023/24, and from April to November 2024/25:
Financial year | Tablet | Capsule | Liquid, solution, suspension, drops | Other formulations |
2015/16 | £1,128,000,000 | £336,000,000 | £155,000,000 | £35,000,000 |
2016/17 | £1,138,000,000 | £325,000,000 | £156,000,000 | £35,000,000 |
2017/18 | £1,211,000,000 | £273,000,000 | £146,000,000 | £34,000,000 |
2018/19 | £1,252,000,000 | £239,000,000 | £144,000,000 | £35,000,000 |
2019/20 | £1,423,000,000 | £254,000,000 | £148,000,000 | £38,000,000 |
2020/21 | £1,570,000,000 | £263,000,000 | £158,000,000 | £40,000,000 |
2021/22 | £1,581,000,000 | £250,000,000 | £164,000,000 | £45,000,000 |
2022/23 | £1,723,000,000 | £267,000,000 | £189,000,000 | £46,000,000 |
2023/24 | £1,742,000,000 | £279,000,000 | £218,000,000 | £49,000,000 |
2024/25 | £1,091,000,000 | £173,000,000 | £190,000,000 | £13,000,000 |
This answer is based on information extracted from the NHSBSA Data Warehouse, using all drug products where there was an indication of an oral route on the NHSBSA’s drug database.
The NHSBSA does not hold a single cost to the NHS. Total NIC is the amount that would be paid using the basic price of the prescribed medicine and the quantity prescribed, before any discounts, dispensing costs, or fees. It also does not include other costs to the NHS, such as those associated with purchasing or storing these medicines. The basic price is given either in the Drug Tariff or is determined from prices published by manufacturers, wholesalers, or suppliers. For branded medicines, the cost to the NHS will be partially offset by the statutory scheme and voluntary scheme.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency continuously monitors the safety of medicines on the United Kingdom’s market and ensures the product information, which includes the patient information leaflet supplied with each pack of medicine, reflects what is known about the medicine, and provides information to support the safe use of the medicine. This includes information about the risks to particular groups of patients such as the elderly, details of possible side effects, and if action is needed to seek medical advice and information about the risk of interactions with other medicines, and the action that is needed to minimise the risks.