Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of Westmorland and Furness Council's road safety policies on roads on which (a) major accidents and (b) fatalities have taken place.

The Department for Transport takes road safety for all road users seriously. The Department's road safety flagship project, the Safer Roads Fund focuses on treating the highest risk A road sections. To date £147.5m has been invested in helping local authorities, alongside the Road Safety Foundation, improve the safety of England’s most high risk ‘A roads.

Cumbria County Council was awarded £1.9m in 2018/19 and £7.4m in 2020/21 from the Safer Roads Fund for improvements to the A684 and A592. The Department assesses the plans submitted for this funding and monitors progress on implementation for those that have been allocated Safer Roads Funding. However, the Department has not otherwise made a specific assessment of the council’s road safety policies because the local council has responsibility for making decisions about local roads, based on its local knowledge and taking into account local needs.