Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, following the institution of Active Travel England, what discussions he has had with representatives of local authorities on the expertise required to implement Gear Change and the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.

The Department agrees that local authorities need the capacity and capability to deliver the objectives set out in these ambitious strategies. Active Travel England will have a key role to play in supporting and upskilling local authority officers, and it has already started this process. It has, for example, held meetings with, and provided detailed feedback on scheme designs, to individual local authorities. It has also run events such as a major online workshop in April for local authority planners and transport officers, which was attended by over 400 officers from 120 local authorities. The Department has also been running a series of local authority training sessions, which will see over 1,000 officers receiving training on cycle infrastructure design.