Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they are planning to
issue a new road safety strategy and, if so, when.
(Lab)
I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order
Paper and declare an interest as life president of RoSPA.
(Con)
My Lords, the Department for Transport constantly looks at how
road safety can be improved. We have already intervened to update
the Highway Code to protect the most vulnerable road users,
invested in improvements for high-risk roads through the safer
roads fund and changed the law to strengthen sentences for the
most dangerous motoring offences. This demonstrates the
importance of road safety to this Government.
(Lab)
My Lords, England’s previous road safety strategy elapsed in
2019, meaning that we are now the only country in mainland
Britain and G7 not to have a published road safety strategy.
England, once a global beacon for road safety, has seen countries
such as Finland and Sweden overtaking us. The Government’s
failure to act meant that in Britain last year almost 30,000
people were killed or seriously injured on our roads, and the
overwhelming majority of them were in England. This is
unacceptable. Will the Government commit to publishing a new road
safety strategy and national casualty reduction targets now and,
having published them, act on them?
(Con)
My Lords, priorities change. Road safety is not just about
strategy documents—it is about making continuing improvements.
Our recent 2022 statistics show a 2% reduction in fatalities
compared with 2019, with traffic levels returning to pre-pandemic
levels. This is why the Government are proud of ranking Britain
fifth out of 38 countries with available data for the lowest
number of road fatalities per million population.
(Con)
My Lords, is not it the case that the poor standard of road
safety in some of our areas is caused by the large number of
potholes in the roads, which need to be fixed and are very
numerous? What can be done?
(Con)
We are investing more than £5 billion from 2020-21 to 2024-25 to
maintain local roads, with an extra £200 million announced in the
Budget in March 2023. This funding is enabling councils up and
down the country to fill millions of potholes, repair dozens of
bridges and resurface roads. In Network North, we announced £8.3
billion of new funding to fix the blight of potholes over a
10-year period, using funding released from HS2.
(LD)
My Lords, I declare my interest as a president of RoSPA. Would
the Minister confirm who was consulted on making this decision on
the road safety strategy and when the Government intend to
implement the strategy?
(Con)
I am afraid that I have not been briefed on that and I shall have
to write to the noble Baroness.
(CB)
My Lords, one night last week at a complex five-road junction in
south London, I encountered e-bikers coming at me from every
single direction, all without helmets, some on the pavement and
many without lights. Many were running red lights, and many were
travelling well in excess of the 15.5 miles per hour limit.
E-bikers are turning our city streets into high-risk environments
for pedestrians. Is not it time to bring them under a tighter
legal framework?
(Con)
My Lords, I think we all share the noble Lord’s concern over
e-bikes, but the law is clear that electrically assisted pedal
cycles are legal up to 15.5 miles per hour. Beyond that speed,
they become motorcycles and are governed as such. It is up to the
police to enforce these laws.
(Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the noble Lord, , to his position on the
Front Bench and hope he survives his first ordeal of Question
Time. He says that road safety is an evolving process. One of the
things that is unfortunately evolving is a very big increase in
the number of rural road deaths, which I think now account for
some 59% of all road deaths. Will the Minister commit that, in
the department’s thinking, a greater emphasis will be put on
rural road safety? Can he explain now to the House what steps the
department is taking in this direction?
(Con)
I think it is well known that rural roads are the most dangerous
in the UK highway network. On 6 April 2023, the Government
announced an additional £48 million investment in safer roads, on
top of £100 million that had already been provided. There are now
83 roads funded, and it is expected that the safer roads fund
will save 2,210 lives over the next 20 years.
(Con)
My Lords, when I was Defence Minister, I had the privilege in
March this year of launching the defence road safety strategy.
Our imperative to do that was because we discovered that more
Armed Forces personnel were being killed on the roads than were
being killed on operational deployments. Would it be helpful to
my noble friend, because I imagine that the principles of the
strategy are pretty similar, whether it is the MoD or the
Department of Transport, to engage with the MoD, which I am sure
would be prepared, as ever, to assist?
(Con)
The short answer is yes. The Department for Transport conducts
many calls for evidence and consultations with interested parties
and would always welcome input that improves road safety. I thank
my noble friend for highlighting the defence road safety strategy
and the opportunities to learn from it.
(CB)
My Lords, has the Minister noticed that those areas where the 20
miles per hour speed limit makes the least sense—for example,
multi-lane main thoroughfares—are where motorists are most likely
to receive fines for speeding; whereas in areas where the limit
makes most sense, for example narrow residential streets with
parked cars and children, enforcement is almost non-existent? Is
there some logic behind this bizarre situation?
(Con)
The noble and gallant Lord makes an excellent point. The power to
impose 20 miles per hour speed limits rests with the local
traffic authority and I emphasise that the Government support 20
miles per hour limits in the right places. However, the
Government do not support 20 miles per hour limits being set
indiscriminately on all roads, without due regard to the safety
case and local support.
(Con)
My Lords, I did not quite recognise the figures given by the
noble Lord, . The fact is that I believe the
United Kingdom has a fairly good road safety record when compared
with countries with similar industrial bases. But will my noble
friend look at the practice, which I think has grown quite
substantially, of undertaking on motorways? This is something
that I always thought was against the Highway Code, but I am told
that it is actually not. I think that the growth in undertaking
has led to a number of accidents on motorways.
(Con)
I thank my noble friend for the question. I believe that in
certain circumstances, it is an offence, and as such, it is up to
the police to enforce.
(Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the Minister to his post, but he will need,
in his brief, to learn from history. The 1990s Conservative
Government, with as Road Safety Minister,
produced a road safety strategy, and they cut deaths by 40%
during that period. The first Blair Government had a Road Safety
Minister—whom modesty forbids me to mention—and we also had a
10-year road strategy, and again cut deaths by 40%. Progress
since then has slowed. We need to integrate road design, vehicle
design, driver behaviour and many other aspects in a clear
strategy that is pursued for a length of time. Will the Minister
please take that back and ask his officials to again draw up such
a strategy?
(Con)
I will of course take the noble Lord’s comments back to the
department, but the Government continue to invest in safety on
the roads and to improve enforcement of motoring offence by, for
example, closing loopholes around driving while using a mobile
phone, increasing maximum custodial sentences for causing death
by dangerous driving, and creating a new offence of causing
serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving.
(LD)
My Lords, has the Minister seen the research from RoSPA which
shows that pedestrian safety is measurably worse in areas of
deprivation? It holds true for all age groups, but particularly
for children. Would he not agree that this demonstrates the need
for the sort of approach just outlined by the noble Lord, ?
(Con)
I am afraid I have not seen that research. The Government
continue to improve to Highway Code, for example improving road
safety for people walking, cycling and riding horses. Changes aim
to initiate a positive shift in road-user behaviour by making
road users aware of their responsibility to use roads safely and
to reduce the danger they may pose to others.
