Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 requires a driver to stop and report an accident involving horses, cattle, sheep, asses, mules, pigs, goats or dogs, but not cats or wild animals. This requirement arises from their status as working animals rather than as domestic pets.

The total contractual amounts Highways England pays are as follows:

• £274,129 for the National Road User Satisfaction Survey from April 2015 to March 2016.
• £376,846 for the Area Road User Satisfaction Survey from April 2015 to March 2016.

Costs are not split by region.

The Conservative Manifesto 2015 had a commitment to reduce the number of cyclists and other road users killed or injured on our roads every year. We have been working closely with road safety groups to consider what more can be done and expect to publish our Road Safety Statement shortly.

The Road Safety Statement will set out the high level plan and overarching approach to road safety that we expect to take over the rest of the Parliament, and will be followed by a series of more detailed proposals and consultations. The Department for Transport will publish a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy in 2016 which will set out our plans for investment in safer cycling and walking infrastructure.

Busy roads in rural areas will either be the responsibility of Highways England or local authorities.

Highways England have committed to provide a safer, integrated and more accessible strategic road network for cyclists and other vulnerable road users. To support this, the Government has outlined a commitment to invest £100m between 2015/16 and 2020/21 to improve provision for cyclists on the strategic road network.

On a local level, provision of cycling infrastructure is for local traffic authorities. The Department encourages them to ensure cycling is considered as part of the planning process.The Department for Transport’s Cycle Infrastructure Design guidance supports local authorities on providing cycle-safe infrastructure for cyclists.

It is also worth noting that from within the record £6 billion to be allocated to local highways authorities between 2015 and 2021 for road maintenance, from 2018/19 the plan is to change the formula used to allocate local highways maintenance capital funding so that it also takes into account footways and cycleways as well as the roads, bridges and street lighting, which it is currently based on. Once implemented, around 9% of the funding will be based on footway and cycleway lengths.

The Government remains committed to its manifesto targets to double cycling and make cycling safer.

The Government recently reaffirmed its commitment to cycling and walking, with SR2015 announcing funding support of over £300m. This includes delivering the Cycle City Ambition programme in full, and funding the Bikeability cycle training programme, which increases cycle proficiency amongst school children.

The Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, to be published in summer 2016, will explain the Government’s investment strategy for cycling and walking.

The Department for Transport regularly publishes Official Statistics on the proportion of roads where maintenance should be considered by region in England. The latest available published data are for the financial year 2013/14.

Road maintenance is a matter for individual local highway authorities, and it is for them to prioritise work according to local need. However, we are providing local highway authorities with record funding of £6 billion for local highways maintenance plus a £250 million pothole action fund as recently announced by the Chancellor on top of this.

The Department for Transport regularly publishes Official Statistics on the proportion of roads where maintenance should be considered by region in England. The latest available published data are for the financial year 2013/14.

Road maintenance is a matter for individual local highway authorities, and it is for them to prioritise work according to local need. However, we are providing local highway authorities with record funding of £6 billion for local highways maintenance plus a £250 million pothole action fund as recently announced by the Chancellor on top of this.

In November, the Secretary of State received the interim report of the Strategic Study into a potential Trans-Pennine Tunnel. This early work has shown that a tunnel is technically feasible, and that there is a clear strategic case for linking Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire.

However further work is needed into the costs and economic benefits of such a tunnel before any judgement can be reached about whether or not it will be value for money. The full report of the study, due in 2016, should address these issues.

The Area User Satisfaction Survey (ARUSS) runs continually throughout the year across England. Results are provided for each area every 6 months on a rolling basis.

Area 12 and Area 14 (Yorkshire and the North East)

The report covering the period June 2015 to November 2015 will be available at the end of December 2015 and published on the Highways England website.

Area 10 and Area 13 (North West)

The report covering the period July 2015 to December 2015 will be available at the end of January 2015 and published on theHighways England website.

Since 2010 additional funding, above that allocated at the initial approval stage, has been provided to five local authority road schemes as follows:

Norwich Northern Distributor Road - £10m

Fletton Parkway Widening (Peterborough) - £0.9m

Hartford Bridge Roundabout (Hampshire) - £0.4m

A4600 University Hospital Junction (Coventry) - £0.1m

Stafferton Way (Windsor and Maidenhead) - £0.8m

A value for money assessment was undertaken on the full revised cost of the Norwich Northern Distributor Road which showed that it remained very high value for money under the Department’s value for money assessment with an adjusted Benefit Cost Ratio of 6.07.

No assessment was made by the Department for Transport of the reasons for the increase in the contract target costs of the Norwich Northern Distributor Road. Norfolk County Council officials provided the Department with information on this and with the papers provided to their Councillors prior to the meeting on 6 November where the revised cost of the scheme was approved.

The Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, to be published in summer 2016, will set out the Government’s plans for investing in cycling and walking.

The Government recently reaffirmed its commitment to cycling and walking, with SR2015 announcing funding support ofover £300m. This includes delivering the £114m Cycle City Ambition programme in full, which includes improved cycling infrastructure on roads, and a new ‘Access’ fund for sustainable travel building on the legacy of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. In addition, the Road Investment Strategy for 2015-20 includes plans to improve 200 sections of the roads network for cyclists. All other funding streams will be considered as part of the process for developing the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.

It is also worth noting that from within the record £6 billion to be allocated to local highways authorities between 2015 and 2021 for road maintenance, from 2018/19 the plan is to change the formula used to allocate local highways maintenance capital funding so that it also takes into account footways and cycleways as well as the roads, bridges and street lighting, which it is currently based on. Once implemented, around 9% of the funding will be based on footway and cycleway lengths.

SR2015 also announced an additional £250m for a potholes action fund, which will benefits both motorists and cyclists.

The Department for Transport is providing over £6.1 billion funding to local highway authorities in England between 2015 and 2021 for local highways maintenance. This includes repairing roads that might be damaged due to severe winter weather. This funding includes £50 million per annum from 2016 to 2021 for a dedicated Pothole Action Fund as announced in the recent Spending Review.

This is additional to the funding of over £4.7 billion the Government provided to local highway authorities between 2010 and 2015 for highways maintenance, including £168 million to tackle potholes across the country, as well as £183.5 million we provided in 2014 to help repair roads damaged by the winter floods of 2013/14. Between 2010 to 2015 the maintenance funding was 27% or £1billion higher than in the previous five years.

We have been closely monitoring the movement of humanitarian and health goods over the land borders to Nepal. A number of DFID partners providing winter assistance for vulnerable households living over 1,500m affected by the earthquake have trucks that have not been able to move freely across the border. Other DFID humanitarian partners have been procuring goods from Nepal but are struggling with their distribution due to shortages of fuel.

We are actively advocating to all parties for the free movement of humanitarian and health supplies and peaceful resolution of the current disruption. The UN Resident Coordinator and the UK Ambassador met with Nepal’s Prime Minister this week to raise the issue of access to fuel for humanitarian operations. This has resulted in a positive commitment to prioritise a supply of fuel to humanitarian partners. UK ministers and senior civil servants continue to raise concerns over the current crises and need for quick resolution with concerned groups.

The recently published National Road Survey Satisfaction Survey is based on responses from interviews of approximately 2,000 road users per annum. The results are analysed on an ongoing basis and provide insight to inform the development of Highways England‘s work.

We aim to reduce the number of cyclists and other road users killed or injured on our roads every year. We have been working closely with road safety groups to consider what more can be done and expect to publish our Road Safety Statement shortly. The Road Safety Statement will set out the high level plan and overarching approach to road safety that we expect to take over the rest of the Parliament, and will be followed by a series of more detailed proposals and consultations.

Highways England has recently announced their new road safety ambition that no one shall be harmed while working or travelling on the network. In support of this, they have launched their 5 year Health and Safety Plan which contains specific actions relating to road safety.

Decisions about street lighting are primarily for elected local councillors, reflecting local circumstances and views. The Government has not made an assessment of the effects of turning off street lights in the early hours of the morning by some local authorities.

However, a research study - The effect of reduced street lighting on road casualties and crime in England and Wales : controlled interrupted time series analysis - by R Steinbach et al, in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health published in July 2015 on the effects of street lighting on road safety and crime in England and Wales (attached) found little evidence of harmful effects of switch off, part-night lighting, dimming, or changes to white light/LEDs on road collisions or crime.