Pollution and Congestion, London (Hansard, 20 December 1991)

§ Miss Hoey
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what measures he intends to take to reduce air pollution in London caused by motor vehicles.

§ Mr. Chope
From 31 December 1992, we shall require new standards to be met by all cars and light goods vehicles, both petrol and diesel-engined. New requirements for diesel emissions will also apply to heavy duty404W trucks and buses from 1 October 1993, with further reductions from 1 October 1996. So far as London in particular is concerned, record sums are already being invested in public transport to improve the quality of choice for those who might otherwise use private motor cars. Traffic management projects, such as red routes, are intended to enable traffic to flow more smoothly, and thus give off less emissions than when moving in a "stop-start" manner. The pilot red route scheme in north London has already demonstrated the success of this strategy.

§ Ms. Hoey
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whart measures he intends to take to relieve traffic congestion in London.

§ Mr. Chope
The Government have several initiatives designed to tackle urban road congestion, a principal one of which is to continue to make public transport more attractive, reliable and efficient.

§ Mr. Flynn
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has to reduce the concentration of private traffic on London's roads.

§ Mr. Chope
[holding answer 19 December 1991]: The Government have several initiatives designed to tackle urban road congestion, a principal one of which is to continue to make public transport more attractive, reliable and efficient.

§ Mr. Day
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress is being made concerning the further development and adoption nationally of a car secondary safety rating system, to improve consumer information about the relative crashworthiness merits of new cars through technical inspection and impact testing methods.

§ Mr. Chope
We are currently developing the methodology used in producing the statistics in the publication "Car and Driver: Injury Accident and Casualty Rates Great Britain". The information in the next edition will be further refined to try to isolate secondary safety; if this is successful it could be used as a measure of the secondary safety of cars. In addition we are co-operating with the Consumers Association in the further development of its secondary safety rating system to include some destructive testing.