Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance his Department issues to local authorities on the introduction of 20mph speed limits.

The Department for Transport issues non-mandatory guidance to English local authorities on setting speed limits, including 20mph speed limits. It suggests that 20mph limits can be introduced in streets that are primarily residential as well as major streets where there may be significant numbers of pedestrian and cycle journeys and this outweighs the disadvantage of longer journey times for motorised traffic.

Local authorities are responsible for taking decisions about setting speed limits on their roads as they have the local knowledge making them the best placed to do so.