Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average A&E capacity utilisation rate is for (a) Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, (b) University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and (c) England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England does not publish an accident and emergency (A&E) capacity utilisation for individual hospitals, National Health Service trusts or England. Consequently, the Department cannot provide the requested figures from published data.
The closest published measure is the general and acute (G&A) bed occupancy rate, which shows the proportion of available general and acute inpatient beds that are occupied. However, this is a measure of inpatient bed occupancy rather than emergency department capacity and should not be interpreted as an A&E capacity utilisation rate. The latest published G&A bed occupancy data is available through NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Daily Situation Reports at the following link:
The Government recognises the sustained pressures facing urgent and emergency care services and is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the NHS Constitution. Through the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by over £450 million of investment, the Government and NHS England are expanding Same Day Emergency Care services, Urgent Treatment Centres, Mental Health Crisis Assessment Centres and ambulance capacity to improve patient flow and reduce pressure on emergency departments.
NHS England has also published the Model Emergency Department and the Model Acute Pathway standards for the first 72 hours of care, supporting earlier assessment, timely senior clinical review, faster clinical decision-making and improved patient flow. University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust continues to work with NHS England and Getting It Right First Time teams to improve urgent and emergency care performance.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the relationship between area deprivation levels and road traffic accident rates.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statistics on the proportion of reported road casualties in England by deprivation level are published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-casualties-and-deprivation-factsheet-2024-england
Generally, there are a higher proportion of road casualties who live in the more deprived areas. In 2024, the difference in casualties between the most deprived 10% and least deprived 10% IMD decide was 4.9 percentage points, with 11.8% of casualties living in the most deprived 10% of areas, compared to 6.8% for the least deprived 10%.
Within the Road Safety Strategy, we committed to monitoring a Safety Performance Indicator regarding the proportion of casualties in road traffic collisions with Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) in the lowest decile. The Safety Performance Indicators will be monitored as part of delivery of the Road Safety Strategy.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of road safety funding has been allocated to constituencies in the most deprived 10% nationally in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Transport does not routinely collect or publish data on road safety funding allocations by parliamentary constituency or by levels of deprivation. Most road safety-related funding is allocated to local highway authorities, and funding decisions on individual road safety measures are generally made at local level.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many applications for road safety funding her Department has received from Birmingham City Council in each of the last three years; and how many of those applications were successful.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has received one application for road safety funding from Birmingham City Council in the past three years. Birmingham City Council was invited to submit an application to the Safer Roads Fund in 2023 for safety improvements on the A41 route, which had been identified as eligible for funding under the programme.
The Council proposed that funding instead be directed towards improvements on the B4514/B4217. However, these roads fell outside the scope and eligibility criteria of the Safer Roads Fund.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the relationship between traffic calming measures and rates of active travel in urban areas.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Active Travel England’s published Rapid Evidence Assessments contain evidence that traffic calming measures can support increased walking, cycling and other forms of active travel in urban areas. Relevant interventions include traffic-free areas, road closures, School Streets, low-speed streets and traffic-free cycling infrastructure. The evidence suggests these measures can increase walking and cycling, improve perceptions of safety, and reduce traffic volumes and speeds.
The Rapid Evidence Assessments are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluating-the-impact-of-active-travel-investmentc.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding streams are available to support local authorities implementing traffic calming measures in areas with road traffic accident rates above the national average.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Transport is providing all Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) with multi-year consolidated funding settlements, giving LTAs greater freedom and flexibility to make the strategic decisions that best impact their local areas. Elements of this funding settlement could be spent on traffic calming measures if they are a priority for the LTA.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department is taking steps to support local authorities implementing Vision Zero road safety strategies in areas with high fatal accident rates.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 7 January 2026 we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all.
The Strategy includes commitments to refresh best practice on setting local speed limits, update guidance on the use of speed and red-light cameras, and publish a new edition of the Manual for Streets.
The Strategy sets an ambitious target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65%, and 70% for children under 16, by 2035.
We recognise some local authorities may wish to go further and set more ambitious local targets. Many local authorities also have targets in place, many of which are a 50% reduction in KSIs by 2030, as well as some having vision zero targets. We welcome these approaches. We do not want to deter this ongoing work by unilaterally setting targets for local authorities.
Road safety is a shared responsibility, and this strategy reflects that. It considers action needed by government, local authorities, industry, emergency services and communities to tackle the causes of collisions and save lives.