HC Deb 03 December 2001 vol 376 cc32-3W
Mr. Sanders

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the changes made to the(a) measurements and (b) methodology used for determining the length of roads as used for the purposes of standard spending assessments for local authorities since 1997. [19547]

Dr. Whitehead

In calculating Standard Spending Assessments (SSAs) for 1996–97 to 2001–02 the lengths of roads used have been estimated from local authority returns, to the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR). Over this period DTLR (or its predecessor Departments) has made no change to the method of determining the lengths of minor roads. The Department does not hold central information on whether individual authorities have changed the basis they use for recording these lengths. Starting with the calculation of 2001–02 SSAs DTLR' s Transport Statistics Roads Division (TSR) have used Geographical Information System (GIS) data to make comparisons between data from local authorities and their own major road network data, ironing out differences between the two, such as the elimination of the double-counting of dual carriageways by some authorities. This exercise has now been completed in time for the 2002–03 SSAs and the major road length estimates for this settlement are based on these data. No announcement has yet been made regarding the basis for minor road lengths to be used in 2002–03 SSAs. This will form part of the forthcoming consultation announcement on the provisional local government finance settlement.

Mr. Sanders

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will publish the total mileage of roads for each local authority used for the purposes of calculating standard spending assessments for each year since 1997 including the figures for 2001–02. [19548]

Dr. Whitehead

The total length of roads, in kilometres, comprising of principal and minor roads, used to calculate SSAs for each local authority for the years 1996–97 to 2002–02 has been placed in the House of Commons Library.