Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the national speed limit on rural roads.

The Department has provided guidance to traffic authorities in the Speed Limit Circular 01/2013- Setting Local Speed Limits. This encourages traffic authorities to keep speed limits under review, and to consider lower speed limits than the default, especially where there may be a relatively high number of bends, junctions or accesses.

Consideration of collision history, road function, mix of road users including presence of vulnerable road users, road geometry, engineering and environment, and actual traffic speed should enable traffic authorities to determine the appropriate limit on rural roads.