Traffic Management Bill (Hansard, 19 January 2004)

§ Mr. Chope
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will set out the basis used in the regulatory impact assessment of the Traffic Management Bill for calculating the extent of delay imposed by incidents on the trunk road network. [145546]

§ Mr. Jamieson
The Highways Agency has calculated total motorway congestion from Department for Transport figures for estimated time lost compared with free flow speed (per kilometre travelled for different vehicle types) together with figures for total motorway traffic taken from the Transport Statistics Bulletin.
The Highways Agency used a variety of data to estimate incident related congestion. This included research from the Transport Research Laboratory which estimated that 25 per cent. of congestion was due to incidents. The Highways Agency Traffic Control Centre Project estimated a figure of 30 per cent.

§ Mr. Damian Green
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make it his policy to ensure that the powers contained in section 74 of the Traffic Management Bill are universally adopted by local authorities. [147094]

§ Mr. Jamieson
Clause 74 of the Traffic Management Bill enables the Lord Chancellor to make regulations specifying how a penalty charge notice may be served and its content, such as the alleged contravention, the amount of the penalty charge, by when it has to be paid, how and where it can be paid, discount available for early payment, right to make representations and so on. The clause specifically excludes the power to stop vehicles for the purposes of issuing a penalty charge notice.
All local authorities receiving civil enforcement powers as a result of this Bill will be required to abide by the terms of these regulations.

§ Mr. Damian Green
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what sources were used to produce the figures for the costs to business of utility streetworks in the Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Traffic Management Bill. [147097]

§ Mr. Jamieson
The Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Traffic Management Bill (page 5) discusses the total economic costs of utility street works rather than the costs to business alone.
1011W
There are two estimates. The first of £35 million in 1983 prices is taken from the 1985 'Review of the Public Utilities Street Works Act 1950' (HMSO—ISBN 0 11 550729 9, page 119). The second of £2.4 billion is taken from a 1992 report of the Transport Research Laboratory. Unfortunately, this latter figure was quoted in error and refers to the total value of utility construction work. However a 2001 report by the Laboratory 'Mitigating the Disruption caused by Utility Street Works' (TRL report 516—ISSN 0968–4107, page 9) estimated the annual traffic delay costs of utility street works at some £2 billion. My department has commissioned Halcrow to update this work.

§ Mr. Damian Green
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what economic model the Government has used in working out the figures for the Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Traffic Management Bill; and if he will place a copy in the Library. [147099]

§ Mr. Jamieson
Figures presented in the Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Traffic Management Bill have been calculated using software packages models Transport User Benefit Analysis (TUBA), Cost Benefit Analysis (COBA), and Queues and Delays at Roadworks (QUADRO).
TUBA and COBA were used to calculate figures relating to the Highways Agency's Traffic Officer Service. The model used to calculate the financial cost of disruption caused by utilities' street works is called QUADRO.
Manuals and guidance for using these packages are available via the DfT website as detailed below.
The COBA User Manual is available at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft control/documents/contentservertemplate/dft index.hcst?n=7912&1=4 The TUBA User Manual is available at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft transstrat/documents/page/dft transstrat 50799Q.hcsp The TUBA Guidance is available at: hitp://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft transstrat/documents/page/dft transstrat 507975.pdf The QUADRO user manual is available at: http://www.dft. gov. uk/stcllent/groups/dft control/documents/contentservertemplate/dft index. hcst?n=7914&1=4