§ Mr. Sheermanasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will provide a detailed list of all research and development projects into ways of reducing road accidents and casualties under way or planned for 1987–88 at the transport and road research laboratory or contracted out to other agencies relating to (a) road user behaviour, (b) road environment and (c) vehicle safety.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyYes. In view of the volume of information requested, I am writing to the hon. Member and placing copies of the letter in the Library.
§ Mr. Sheermanasked the Secretary of State for Transport if as a means of reducing the under-reporting of road accidents and of improving knowledge of the epidemiology of road accidents, he has any plans to extend linkage of hospital in-patient statistics and STATS 19 data to the rest of Britain.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe transport and road research laboratory is continuing to explore linkage to hospital inpatient data with STATS 19 data with the intention of extending the arrangements already in place in Scotland to Wales and the English regions if this proves to be practicable. There are difficulties in gaining access to the hospital data and in the quality of that data to enable the linkage to be achieved. Problem of gaining access is a medical ethical one.
The quality of data is inferior, in that not all areas use the up-to-date version of the classification of disease (ICD code) on which the linkage depends to identify the type of road user. The computer method of linkage developed for Scottish data is given in LR 1130 and examples of use of the linked data in RR 96.