§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list in theOfficial Report the number of people employed by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory on safety matters for each of the last five years, the amount of research spending at constant prices for those years and the proportion of such expenditure devoted to road safety improvement; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe number of people employed by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory on safety matters for each of the last five years is as follows:
Staff years 1983–84 79 1984–85 86 1985–86 109 1986–87 117 1987–88 112 The amount of research spending for the same period was:
Safety Costs TRRL Costs Cash 1987–88 prices Cash 1987–88 prices £ million £ million £ million £ million Per cent. 1983–84 4.4 5.2 19.5 23.1 22.5 1984–85 5.3 6.9 20.6 23.1 25.5 1985–86 6.6 7.1 21.0 22.4 31.7 1986–87 6.0 6.2 20.6 21.3 29.1 1987–88 6.7 6.7 21.2 21.2 31.6 In the first year following the recommendation of the interdepartmental group on road safety to transfer funds from road safety publicity to research, £100,000 was transferred and spent on investigations into behavioural aspects of motor cyclist safety and motor cycle design. This is already contributing to policy making in the Department. In the current year the transfer is to be £600,000. Among new projects are major exercises to relate the design of road junctions to observations of the way safety depends on dimensions; the educational "Demonstration of Good (Educational) Practice"; work on retraining and rehabilitation of offenders proposed in the report of the North committee on traffic law and and further studies of behavioural approaches to traffic safety. Further transfers are being considered.