The Eritrean Government has justified civilian and military national service on grounds of the security threat posed by Ethiopia, but we have yet to see concrete proposals for reform following the peace declaration. According to our information, every Eritrean young person completes their 12th and final year of school at the national service military training centre at Sawa where they do both military training as well as academic study. At the end, they take exams which leads to some going to college, some receiving vocational training, while others join government ministries or the military. All jobs in Eritrea in the public sector are done by Eritreans on national service, and these include the civil service, teachers, doctors, construction and the military. Sustainable reform of national service needs to happen in tandem with improvements to the economic situation and job creation. We will continue to monitor the situation.

The UK exercises oversight of UK funding directed through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa through the Fund’s governance mechanisms. Individual projects such as roadbuilding are assessed for project and contextual risks and in relation to essential standards, including those for health and safety.

The UK Government supports UN Global Sustainability Goals on road safety and has supported research to improve road safety and reduce the impact of road crashes on poor people in developing countries. The UK Government has invested £20 million through the Global Road Safety Facility through DFID and the Department of Health and Social Care. This facility has generated new evidence on road safety, and has influenced World Bank investments in roads. The facility succeeded in including Road Safety as a criteria in the Bank’s corporate Safeguarding Framework. Several other Multilateral Development Banks are now using this as a model. It is estimated by the World Bank that as a result of this work over 2,100 road deaths and injuries were avoided in developing countries in 2017.

DFID also works to share UK expertise on road safety with developing country governments including Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda. The Department for Transport held an International Conference on Road Safety in the UK in September 2019 and will lead the UK delegation at the UN’s 3rd Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden in February 2020.

Highways England conduct a monthly Environmental Audit inspection to ensure Connect Plus meet their contractual obligations in respect of litter.

Although there is no direct mechanism to apply financial penalties for failure to collect litter specifically, Connect Plus are monitored on their performance with respect to removing litter from the strategic road network. Failure to meet their contractual obligations can trigger various sanctions, which can range from increased reporting, additional monitoring to loss of entitlement to certain bonuses. In extreme cases, if the performance of a contractor persistently falls below the terms of the specific contractual arrangements across multiple aspects of performance, this could lead to contract termination through contractor default.

On 22 November 2018, the Government published a two-year action plan and response to the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) Safety Review Call for Evidence. This made clear its commitment to the hierarchy of road users.

Included within CWIS SR action plan is a commitment to review the guidance in The Highway Code to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians. We are currently agreeing the scope and delivery of this review, and would expect the hierarchy of road users to fall within scope. The review will be conducted in consultation with the Department's stakeholders, according to its usual practice.

Highways England ensures that its supply chain is selected, incentivised and performs in line with its key performance indicators. Supplier performance is measured on a monthly cycle through the Collaborative Performance Framework process. This scores suppliers on a scale of 0 – 10; the metrics are updated annually.

The contractual arrangements for firms working on the strategic road network provide for both financial reward and penalty depending on performance against the agreed cost of work undertaken. There is also a process of redress for poor quality, including non-compliance with contract, standards or statutory obligation. This ranges from contractors having to bear the cost of correcting defective work through to contract termination.

Highways England is responsible for the motorways and main A-roads in England. It is spending £5bn on maintenance and renewals, which includes spend on resurfacing and pothole repairs, in the first Road Investment Strategy period (2015-2020).

Highways England is also working with its suppliers to improve the performance of road surface materials so that the service life is prolonged, helping to reduce the number of potholes in future. As part of this work, Highways England has ongoing road trials of new and innovative products.

The Department for Transport intends to publish a refreshed road safety statement and the two-year road safety action plan later this year.

It is the Government’s intention for the additional £420 million funding for 2018/19 for local highways maintenance capital funding as announced in the Budget 2018 to be utilised by end of this financial year. This funding is to support the repair of potholes, to keep local bridges and structures open and safe, and to aid other minor highway works that may be needed. It is for each highway authority to determine how this funding is used based on their own local assessments and requirements.

Highways England are responsible for cleaning litter on motorways and a small number of A roads. Local Authorities are responsible for clearing litter on all other A roads and All Purpose Trunk Roads.

District councils in England (outside London) have powers to issue civil penalties to the keepers of vehicles from which litter is thrown onto their roads. All local authorities can also prosecute or issue fixed penalties in lieu of prosecution for littering offences on any road within their area, including motorways. Highways England do not have any enforcement powers in respect of littering offences on the roads from which they are responsible for clearing litter.

The Department does not hold information on what kind of animal is involved in road accidents.

The closest data we hold on this is the number of reported road accidents where ‘animal in carriageway’ is recorded as a carriageway hazard. This covers all animals (except ridden horses). This data is available by accident severity in Great Britain in 2015 to 2017 and is shown in the following table.

Please note that the number of serious accidents provided is as reported by the police. Since 2016, changes in severity reporting systems for a large number of police forces mean that serious injury figures, and to a lesser extent slight injuries, are not comparable with earlier years.

The Government recognises the public’s interest in, and the potential environmental value of, e-scooters. But it is also under an obligation to ensure that they are built and can be operated safely, both for their riders and for other road users. Whilst e-scooters can be used on private property (with the landowner’s permission), in general it is illegal to ride them on the road. This includes in cycle lanes, or tracks, or on the pavement.

The Department for Transport ran a Call for Evidence in 2018 as part of the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge, which closed on 10 September 2018. It is now considering next steps on this issue, and is working to define the scope of a Regulatory Review looking at how the UK can take full advantage of this and other changes in technology. The scope of the review will be set out later this year.

The Department for Transport announced in January 2017 that it was undertaking an innovative trial on the way potholes are identified and managed.

The Department for Transport is working in partnership with Thurrock, York and Wiltshire councils and two private sector SME’s, Soenecs and Gaist, to undertake the pothole spotter trial which allows high-definition cameras to be mounted to refuse collection vehicles to help identify road surface problems before they become potholes.

Data has been collected from the trial and is currently being assessed. A “lessons learned” report will be published by end March 2019.

The Department agrees that accidents involving cyclists and HGVs are an issue of great concern and our aim is to reduce the number of deaths that result from them. Responses to the recent Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) Safety Review Call for Evidence highlighted these concerns and we will be publishing a full response to the consultation shortly, which will seek to address the issue.

Details of the Call for Evidence and the Summary of Responses are available to view on the Department’s website.

Safety is the first responsibility for both the Department and Highways England, and one of the key aims Her Majesty’s Government has set for both the Road Investment Strategy 1 and Road Investment Strategy 2. An affordable, deliverable investment plan that meets the Government’s objectives for RIS2 is under development, and final decisions will be announced in 2019.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Budget 2018 that a further £420 million is being made available to local highway authorities in England, outside London, to maintain their local road network, including the repair of potholes. This funding is in addition to just over £6 billion which the Government is allocating to highway authorities for local highway maintenance from 2015 to 2021.

Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London and delivered by Transport for London (TfL). The Government has regular discussions with TfL on a range of issues, however, road closures and traffic management on TfL roads is a matter for TfL.

The Department for Transport announced on Thursday 17 May 2018 that the publication of Reported road casualties Great Britain, main results: 2017, which had been scheduled for end June 2018, would be delayed until September. This was due to the non-availability of complete 2017 road casualty data for London, as a result of technical and data quality issues following the implementation of the Case Overview and Preparation Application (COPA) reporting system by the Metropolitan Police Service in November 2016.

The full statement is available on the Road accidents and safety statistics collections page on gov.uk. The Department announced a revised publication date of Thursday 27 September 2018 in the release calendar for Official Statistics. Officials have received the road casualty data for London as planned to meet this revised publication date.

The Department for Transport announced on Thursday 17 May 2018 that the publication of Reported road casualties Great Britain, main results: 2017, which had been scheduled for end June 2018, would be delayed until September. This was due to the non-availability of complete 2017 road casualty data for London, as a result of technical and data quality issues following the implementation of the Case Overview and Preparation Application (COPA) reporting system by the Metropolitan Police Service in November 2016.

The full statement is available on the Road accidents and safety statistics collections page on gov.uk. The Department announced a revised publication date of Thursday 27 September 2018 in the release calendar for Official Statistics. Officials have received the road casualty data for London as planned to meet this revised publication date.

Local authorities are responsible for managing their road networks, including implementing measures such as right turn bans. It is for them to ensure these and other traffic restrictions are properly signed on-street so that drivers are aware of them. Drivers are responsible for ensuring they follow the rules of the road and are not in breach of any restrictions.

The Department for Transport has no responsibility for producing road mapping. Commercial mapping companies are responsible for ensuring the maps they produce are accurate.