Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increasing deer populations on drivers in rural communities.

My Department has made no assessment of deer populations and road safety.

We recognise that drivers are at risk of collisions with wild animals. Traffic signs warning that wild animals, including deer, may be in the road ahead are available for local authorities to install where they consider it appropriate. Advice on their use is given in Chapter 4 of the Traffic Signs Manual, available at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-signs-manual.