Open letter to Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Congratulations on your appointment. We see the transport brief as extremely important and road safety as a key priority within it.
We are writing on behalf of the Safe Roads for All Alliance which came together last year to assist the Department for Transport in developing a new road safety framework. It is a broad alliance of over 50 organisations from the private, public and voluntary sectors.
We know you are committed, within your transport brief, to growth for the UK that is green and delivers economic returns, fast. We note the commitment in the budget to road infrastructure, including further funding for the Safer Roads Fund which is extremely welcome. We know you will be determined to implement and accelerate powerful changes with demonstrable results to get us there.
Accelerating road safety actions will help you deliver the results the government is seeking, especially by helping to unlock safe and sustainable outcomes that also create wealth for the UK. Why road safety matters in numbers:
33,052 – the average number of people reported killed or seriously injured each year on GB roads over the past decade;
£33.4 billion – your Department’s estimate of the value of preventing road collisions and casualties in 2019;
4,000 road victim families in need of support after being horrifically bereaved or suffering life-changing injuries every year;
£0.9 billion – the annual cost to the NHS from physical inactivity. Road danger is the biggest deterrent to active travel.
4:1 – the BCR on typical road safety engineering schemes – far in excess of most road investments.
We set out the compelling human, green and economic case in the Safe Roads for All report.
The Department’s Road Safety Statement 2019 has now run its course. Over the past two years we have worked with your department to establish the building blocks of an effective and ambitious new strategy. Excellent groundwork has been done and is ready for implementation. We urge you now to deliver.
Immediate priorities:
An unequivocal statement by you that the current toll of death and injury is not acceptable; and that this government wants to reduce it substantially. The simplest way would be to make clear that the “50 by 30” global target that the government backed at the UN in 2020 also applies to the UK.
Commit to road victim services. Your Department’s latest grant to the National Road Victim Service expired in June 2022 and future funding is still to be announced; this must be addressed immediately to prevent families being placed at risk due to the threat of service cessation.
Reaffirm the Government’s commitment to establishing the Road Safety Investigation Branch and set out the roadmap for its legislative basis and funding.
Publish the Government’s response to its 2020 call for evidence on roads policing.
Re-establish GB’s vehicle regulations as world leading, both in terms of today’s safety standards and providing routes to market for mobility innovators, benefiting society and economy from future technologies.
These items could be achieved with minimal additional cost or work by your Department. Will you press the button?
These are the immediate priorities. A much wider set of actions based on a Safe System strategy is also needed. We request you to meet with the Safe Roads for All Alliance as soon as possible, to hear your thoughts, seek our advice and to answer your questions.
Let’s work together to achieve the change we all need and want to see.
Best regards,
Sent on behalf of the Safe Roads for All Alliance:
Richard Cuerden, Director, TRL (Transport Research Laboratory)
Suzy Charman, Executive Director, Road Safety Foundation
David Davies, Executive Director, PACTS (Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety)
Mary Williams OBE, Chief Executive, Brake (the road safety charity)
