Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve rural road safety.

The Government recognises that the majority of road fatalities (according to the latest statistics) occurred on rural roads (60%) with fewer fatalities on urban roads (35%) and motorways (5%).

The Department has awarded local authorities £185.8 million of funding between 2017 and 2024 through the Safer Roads Fund to improve the safety of England's most high risk 'A' roads. To date, it has funded 445.3 miles of rural roads which make up 62.4% of all funded routes.

The Department is developing a road safety strategy, the first in over ten years, and we will set out more details in due course.