Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the forecast impact of future road building in both rural and urban areas on traffic congestion, what plans they have to (1) control the number of passenger and goods vehicles over the next decade, and (2) co-ordinate their strategic approach to all aspects of traffic with other European countries and the automobile industry.

The Department for Transport is working towards developing scenarios using the National Transport Model (NTM), to support investment and policy decision-making in the context of the Roads Investment Strategy 2. The scenarios will test various uncertainties in some of the main drivers of road traffic, to ensure road investment decisions are robust against a range of possible futures.

However, the Government has no plans to restrict the number of goods vehicles over the next decade. The strategic approach to aspects of traffic does include co-ordination internationally and with the automobile industry, for example about vehicle standards. The Government’s strategic approach to traffic does include how to influence some of the effects of vehicles and levels of traffic, for example as discussed in the recently published Freight Carbon Review.