Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the amount paid in road user compensation claims by local authorities in England outside London from 2012-13 to 2013-14.

The management and defence of insurance claims on the local highway network is entirely a matter for local highway authorities.

The Department for Transport’s road condition statistics for 2013-14 suggest an improvement to the local road network, since 2012-13.

The Department supports local authorities to manage their road networks efficiently and effectively, with record funding of £6billion from 2015 to 2021. Also, from 2016-17, the Department is introducing a Local Highways Maintenance Incentive Fund, to reward those authorities who are demonstrating good practice in this regard. The assessment of local authorities’ eligibility for this Fund includes scoring of the effectiveness of their asset management and risk management approaches.