§ Q4. Mr. Spriggsasked the Prime Minister if he will appoint a Minister of Road Safety.
§ The Prime MinisterNo, Sir. I am satisfied that responsibility for road safety is properly a matter for the Minister of Transport and the Secretary of State for Scotland.
§ Mr. SpriggsMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman to examine the reply given to me on 8th May, as reported in column 426 of the OFFICIAL REPORT, when the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport said that 49,520 people were killed on the roads in Great Britain between 1955 and 1962, and 590,000 were seriously injured in the same period? If the right hon. Gentleman is not prepared to concede what I request in my Question, will he please reverse his policy against nationalised transport and so help to reduce the number of people seriously injured and killed on our roads?
§ The Prime MinisterAs we all know, the matter of road accidents is very serious, but this is simply a question whether it should be taken out of the responsibility of the two Ministers who deal with transport in Scotland and England and Wales and become the 1134 responsibility of a separate Minister without, apparently, any Ministerial authority over roads, or any of the statutory authorities vested in the present Ministers. I am saying that, much as I deplore this and hope that we shall make progress in preventing accidents, I do not think, with the best will in the world, that the machinery suggested by the hon. Gentleman would be helpful.
§ Mr. P. Noel-BakerIn view of the gravity of this question, which has become a major social problem, will the right hon. Gentleman appoint a high-level inquiry into the real cost of road accidents and into the remedies which should be taken to reduce them?
§ The Prime MinisterI think that in the course of various inquiries into the whole problem of roads and traffic which is now being undertaken by the Minister, and in which I think great progress has been made, this point will no doubt emerge and will be part of the considerations.