§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what initiatives his Department will take to promote Child Safety Week on 22 to 28 June.[47201]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonChild Safety Week makes a valuable contribution to DETR's road safety education efforts. 1998 will be the 5th year that the Department has supported the Child Accident Prevention Trust's (CAPT) Child Safety Week. It is an important event which helps raise awareness of road safety issues among parents, carers and children. The Department encourages all those concerned with child safety to become involved. The week provides an opportunity to remind parents of the need to ensure that their children are safe when out walking, cycling or playing. It reminds adults that they need to take care as drivers— to reduce their speeds and ensure that babies and children are safely secured in their vehicle.
We recently organised a conference to disseminate our recent research on road safety education to practitioners in this field. We have also recently issued a booklet providing a summary of recent research on child road safety education funded by the Department; one of the projects on which we have worked closely with CAPT aims to provide advice to new parents on all aspects of child safety. A copy of the booklet will be available in the Library.
My Department has made a grant of £5,000 to CAPT to support the road safety element of their publicity.