HC Deb 19 July 2002 vol 389 c573W
Mr. Chope

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the level of congestion in large urban areas in England was in 2000; and what criteria are used to define such areas. [71625]

Mr. Jamieson

We plan to publish congestion data relating to 2000 in the autumn. These data will form a baseline against which future congestion data will be compared. For the PSA congestion target, large urban areas are defined as all those urban areas with a population of above 250,000: Greater London; the former metropolitan counties centred on the cities of Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield; and the urban areas of Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Hull, Leicester, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton and Stoke. These urban areas may include parts of neighbouring local authority areas to give consistency with the area definitions in the Department's National Transport Model.

Mr. Chope

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the level of congestion was on the inter-urban trunk road network in 2000; and what criteria are to be used to measure changes in congestion each year. [71626]

Mr. Jamieson

We plan to publish congestion data relating to 2000 in the autumn. These data will form a baseline against which future congestion data will be compared.