§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress his Department has made with the proposals contained in the report, "Development of a Rural Road Hierarchy for Speed Management", published in November 2001. [105963]
§ Mr. JamiesonFollowing the publication of the Rural Road Hierarchy Report in November 2001 we are progressing work to improve safety across our rural road network. This includes simplifying the procedures to introduce 30mph village speed limits and the development of a framework to assess what speeds are appropriate, together with surveys of what speeds are actually being driven on rural roads. The first results of this work should be available shortly and will feed into other work, including a review of the guidance on setting speed limits due to start later this year.
§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he intends to publish good practice guidance on rural road speed management. [105964]
§ Mr. JamiesonGuidance on the setting of rural road speed limits already exists in the form of Circular Roads 1/93. This remains good advice. The Government recognise, however, the need to build in the new experiences gained over the last 10 years. Work is due to start on revised guidance later this year. This will incorporate the on-going work to address the problems associated with vehicle speeds on rural roads.