§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he has received a copy of the road safety code of good practice published on 5 October by the local authority associations; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AtkinsI congratulate the associations on having produced such an excellent publication. It is attractively presented, well written and contains much sound practical advice. I commend it to all local authorities. It represents a major contribution to the national effort to reduce road casualties by a third by the year 2000. Its recommendation that individual authorities should identify local targets for casualty reduction and develop road safety plans, to be reviewed and published on an annual basis, by which to achieve them is particularly welcome, as complementing our action in setting national and regional targets.
528WI shall be considering with local authorities at the regional annual consultative committees over the coming weeks the future arrangements for reconciling local and regional targets and for monitoring progress.
The enthusiastic and committed implementation by local authorities of the code's recommendations is essential if we are to achieve the dramatic reduction in casualties which we know to be possible.