§ Mr. HansonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to review circular 52/75 regarding inspection of trees. [23297
§ Ms Glenda JacksonCircular Roads 52/75 will be withdrawn upon the issue of new and revised advice in the Trunk Road Maintenance Manual. These revisions are planned for publication later this year.
The manual is provided to the managing agents for the trunk road network in England under the direction of the Highways Agency. The requirements for the inspection of trees are set out in volume 2, part 1, chapter 11 and are broadly similar to the advice given in the Circular 52/75.
§ Mr. HansonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many people have(a) died and (b) been injured as a result of falling roadside trees in each of the last five years. [23296]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonThe Statistical Branch of DETR produces a number of annual publications which incorporate a wide variety of accident data, but because of the inevitable limit on the number of categorisations of accidents, no separate statistics are maintained on injury accidents resulting from falling trees. There are no 545W immediate plans to identify this data but this will be reconsidered when an overall review is undertaken within the next five years.