Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the trend in the number of specialist road traffic officers since 2015; and what steps his Department is taking to maintain the number of specialist road traffic officers.

The number of Highways England’s Traffic Officers since 2015 is as follows:

2015: 1446

2016: 1439

2017: 1395

There has been a decrease of 51 Traffic Officers between 2015 and 2017, which equates to 3.5%.

The current total staff retention rate at Highways England is 92%, but they are not complacent. Their recruitment and selection process is being improved to include assessments that better reflect the role applicants would undertake as Traffic Officers to ensure it continues to keep and maintain sufficient staff numbers.