HL Deb 04 November 1997 vol 582 c290WA
Lord Walton of Detchant

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions will list the completed, unpublished, research undertaken by the department over the last 10 years on road safety issues; and whether the department will undertake to make this unpublished research available to interested bodies.

Baroness Hayman

It is normal practice for the final reports of research projects to be published, or, if they are of limited interest, to be made available on demand, except in rare cases where there are particular reasons—such as commercial confidentiality—not to do so. Whilst projects are in progress a number of interim reports may be produced which are normally unpublished, but the contents of these are usually included in the published final reports. The department is always happy to assist in the provision of results of research projects but a complete list of unpublished reports over the past 10 years is not available and could only be compiled at disproportionate cost.