Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support Community Speed Watch schemes and (b) deter (i) antisocial driving and (ii) street racing in rural areas.

Community Speedwatch schemes are initiatives coordinated by the police working with local volunteers to target speeders, and decisions on whether to operate local schemes are operational matters for the police.  The Department for Transport agrees that these schemes can be a useful way of monitoring speeds and encouraging drivers to stay within speed limits.  However, it has not made any assessment of the effectiveness of the programmes in the West Dorset constituency.

Turning to the deterrence of antisocial driving and street racing in rural areas, the Crime and Policing Bill, introduced to Parliament in February, includes proposals to give the police greater powers to clamp down on all vehicles involved in anti-social behaviour including street racing, with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizing these vehicles.