§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what environmental assessment and assessment of the traffic implications she has made of proposals to encourage the(a) loan of mopeds and (b) cash help for driving lessons to teenagers in rural areas. [61325]
§ Alun MichaelThe rural White Paper charged the Countryside Agency with evaluating existing Wheels to Work schemes and subsequent production of a good practice guide for their development and implementation. The evaluation does not include a specific environmental assessment or an assessment of the traffic implications of encouraging loans of mopeds or cash help for driving lessons for teenagers in rural areas.
Such assessme ts were not deemed to be necessary because the scale of Wheels to Work is fairly small: 21 schemes were identified and while new schemes will be set up, they are only ever likely to affect a small proportion of the population. The Countryside Agency will continue to monitor the number of new schemes developing to remain informed about possible environmental impacts.