Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2014, what estimate he has made of the potential increase in the carbon emissions impact of the (a) construction and (b) annual use of the new roads announced in that Statement.

Changes in carbon emissions due to road use are assessed for each new strategic road scheme; these are reported as part of the Appraisal Summary Tables that the Highways Agency makes available when projects have been sufficiently developed.

The Department has also used the National Transport Model to analyse the likely change in carbon emissions due to an investment package of the scale of the Road Investment Strategy; our analysis suggests an increase of around 0.1% in carbon emissions for Great Britain during the period of the fourth carbon budget. This increase is expected to be outweighed by the significant investment in environmental measures within the Road Investment Strategy. These include the Environment ring-fenced fund which includes provision for rapid charging points across the network, and the Cycling, Safety and Integration fund with funding for improving cycling and walking infrastructure around the Strategic Road Network.

No estimate of carbon emissions associated with construction has been made.