§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list recent Government commissioned studies which have made recommendations for road user charging schemes; and if he will make a statement. [62880]
§ Mr. SpellarConsultants for four Multi-Modal Studies have recommended in their Final Reports that consideration be given to the future introduction of road user charging schemes. These are the West Midlands Area MMS, West Midlands to North West MMS, North/South Movements in the East Midlands MMS and London to South West and South Wales MMS. The Final Reports are now with the respective Regional Planning Bodies who will make recommendations to Ministers. In addition the consultants carrying out the ORBIT (M25 Corridor) MMS have made provisional recommendations which include road user charging proposals.
Given the practical considerations, we do not believe that a system of inter-urban road user charging for cars could be introduced this decade; accordingly the 577W Government has no plans to do so. However, this is a subject where further work and research is needed and we will revisit it when sufficient progress has been made in clarifying the technical and practical issues involved. In the meantime, we note the arguments put forward both for and against inter-urban charging and are listening to the debate.