§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Transport, (1) what proportion of the cost of data collection for the three national traffic censuses is borne by his Department;
(2) how many of the staff of his Department are involved in the processing of statistics collected under the national traffic censuses.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeMy right hon. Friend and I are steadily reducing the number of traffic censuses carried out 231W for our Department. Virtually all the data collection costs for English sites in the national traffic census are borne by my Department, although some cost-sharing arrangements are being set up with local authorities where traffic counts can serve both national and local purposes.
In 1980–81, 34 man-years were spent by staff of my Department in the organisation and analysis of national 232W traffic censuses. In addition, two man-years at the Transport and Road Research Laboratory were devoted to similar work. However, when our proposals for automated collection of traffic census data have been implemented, there will be net savings of at least 5 staff and a reduction of between 200 and 250 man-years in manual traffic counting by local authority staff.