HC Deb 16 December 1980 vol 996 cc119-20W
Mr. Dudley Smith

asked the Minister of Transport (1) which recommendations of the original Leitch report of 1977 and of the Leitch standing committee report on the regional highway traffic model of 1980 have been rejected by his Department;

(2) when his Department intends to publish a response to the recommendations of the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment's recommendations about the regional highway traffic model project.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

My right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport announced in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Knutsford (Mr. Bruce-Gardyne) on 23 July that he had accepted the main conclusions in the standing advisory committee's report published that day. Most of the recommendations of the original Leitch committee relating to the regional highway traffic model had been overtaken by later work, and the present Administration have not specifically accepted or rejected them. The only further response will be the publication in the spring of a manual on traffic appraisal on the lines recommended. We have rejected one minor recommendation on the charges to be made for access to data, while two others on the role of professional statisticians and on the maintenance and updating of the databank are likely to be implemented in a modified form.