§ Mr. LansleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much local authorities with highway responsibilities paid in claims for personal injury or liability, as a proportion of their total highways budgets, in 2002–03. [165895]
§ Mr. McNultyThis information is not collated centrally from local authorities, although we are looking at whether and how we could do so in the future.
However, the Department for Transport carried out a survey last year. This found that at present local authorities do not collect information on compensation paid on a consistent basis. The best estimate from the survey was that between £50 million and £75 million was paid by local authorities in respect of compensation claims related to highway maintenance in 2002–03. This represents between 2 per cent. to 3 per cent. of the total capital and revenue funding of £2.53 billion made available for local highway maintenance in 2002–03 (not including PFI credits).