HC Deb 16 January 1989 vol 145 c98W
86. Mr. Hunter

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the provision of compensation for the families of those who died, and for those who were seriously injured, in the Clapham train disaster.

Mr. Portillo

Compensation is a matter for the British Railways Board, whose policy is that all claims will be considered sympathetically and as quickly as possible. The Board has made immediate payments of £2,000 to next of kin who indicated that they required help, and has announced that it will pay £10,000 for a bereavement under section 1a of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 rather than the sum of £3,500 which the Act requires.

87. Mr. Ron Davies

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he has taken to enhance road safety for children and young people in urban areas.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

Cutting child casualties is one of our top priorities. Local authorities, schools and parents all have key parts to play. Initiatives include co-operation with local authorities to foster low-cost engineering measures that have been shown particularly to benefit child cyclists and pedestrians; experiments in two local authority areas to develop effective methods of safety education in schools and the "Lessons for Life" campaign launched in September aimed at helping parents play a full role in enhancing their children's road safety. For older children we have worked with the road safety officers to produce a special highway code and teenagers will particularly benefit from our motorcycle training and testing proposals.

We shall continue to pay particular attention to developing measures to reduce child casualties on the roads.

90. Ms. Mowlam

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has to improve road safety.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave to the hon. Member for Glanford and Scunthorpe (Mr. Morley) earlier today.

92. Mr. Henderson

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the effectiveness of local authority actions to improve urban road safety.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

We welcome the considerable enthusiasm and activity of many local authorities in carrying out their responsibilities for improving safety on their roads. Our aim is to encourage and assist all local authorities to follow the example of the best.

Local authority initiatives are crucial to urban safety. We agreed last summer with local authority leaders a high priority and joint approach for tackling road casualties.

We work closely with road safety officers and others on publicity campaigns and child safety measures. In co-operation with the institution of Highways and Transportation we plan to publish guidelines for local highway authorities on the application of area-wide urban safety techniques.