§ Ms HewittTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to set a police key performance indicator to reduce the rate of death and injury on the road. [46922]
§ Mr. MichaelThe Government recognise the important contribution which traffic policing can make towards promoting community safety. We regard traffic policing as a central part of the police's responsibility for maintaining law and order, preventing and detecting crime, and reducing death and injury on the roads.
Traffic policing, however, is only one of the several types of policing which are crucial in tackling crime and disorder. The Home Secretary's national key objectives and key performance indicators are intended to reflect the Government's major initiatives and key priorities, and their number needs to be limited if priorities are to remain clear. Traffic policing should, though, be included in local objectives where police authorities consider that to be appropriate. Performance indicators for the police published by the Audit Commission include the number of road traffic accidents involving death or personal injury.
In 1987, the Department of Transport introduced a target to reduce casualties by one third by the year 2000 compared with the average for 1981–85. As at 1997, fatalities were down 36 per cent. and serious casualties were down 42 per cent. despite an increase in motor traffic of 52 per cent. The Government will be setting a new road traffic target for Great Britain for reducing casualties by the year 2010. It will be incorporated into a coherent road safety strategy, reflecting the Government's work on an integrated transport policy. The objective is to have a new road safety headline target and sub-targets agreed and set during 1998.
The Government are committed to reducing the number of fatalities and injuries which occur on our roads, and we are carefully considering a range of further measures to improve the safety of all road users against the background of our integrated transport policy.