Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people expressed a view directly or via third parties to his Department, Highways England and Ipsos Mori about Option C during the period of the Lower Thames Crossing Consultation between 26 January 2016 and 24 March 2016, including consultation responses, letters, emails and petition signatories that (a) agree or tend to, (b) disagree or tend to disagree and (c) neither agree nor disagree with Option C; and how many of those views were (i) associated and (ii) not associated with an organised campaign.

The decision and announcement of the preferred route for the Lower Thames Crossing followed an exhaustive review of options and extensive analysis to Highways England 2016 public consultation. Each consultation response was considered very carefully and Highways England carried out further assessment of the options before making their recommendation to Government.

Those who responded to the consultation through dedicated response channels (and within the consultation period) as part of an organised campaign group, are included in the consultation report. Of the 47,034 responses received, 13,284 were identified as being associated with organised campaigns, which are identically worded responses.

A total of 32,872 members of the public answered this question using the questionnaire, as follows:

• 19,729 Agree with Option C
• 11,998 Disagree with Option C
• 1,011 Neither support nor oppose
• 134 Don’t know

A total of 447 organisations answered this question using the questionnaire. The breakdown is as follows:

• 307 Agree with Option C
• 115 Disagree with Option C
• 23 neither support nor oppose
• 2 Don’t know

Detail of the analysis of consultation responses is available in the Ipsos MORI report published on 12 April 2017, the post-consultation Scheme Assessment Report and the Response to Consultation, available online at www.lower-thames-crossing.co.uk