Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of utility companies completing street works late in each local authority in the last 12 months for which data is available.

My department does not have the data available to make a detailed assessment of the costs of congestion from overrunning works. If works do overrun, local authorities are able to impose charges of up to £10,000 per day to cover the costs of congestion. We have recently announced that these charges will also be applied to overruns at weekends and on bank holidays to reduce congestion and disruption during these times.