Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what weighting is given to the (a) environmental and (b) social impacts of transport investment in his Department's Web-based Transport Analysis Guidance (WebTAG).

The Department’s Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) provides guidance on the transport appraisal which provides a comprehensive account of all relevant impacts of a proposed transport investment. There is no prior weighting applied to any specific impact or group of impacts, with their importance determined by their scale and evidence on how society values these impacts. Environmental impacts considered include noise, air quality, greenhouse gases, landscape, townscape, historic environment, biodiversity, and water environment. Social impacts considered include accidents, physical activity, security, severance, journey quality, option and non-use value, accessibility, and personal affordability.

TAG also recommends the use of distributional analysis – the impacts of a proposal on more vulnerable groups of society. Where these distributional impacts are relevant to the scheme, a qualitative assessment of the extent and the vulnerable groups affected should be reported.