Written question asked by Lord Grayling (Conservative) on Monday, 30 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 1 February 2006. It was answered by Stephen Ladyman (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 February 2006 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Road Pricing Schemes

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the (a) availability, (b) cost and (c) viability of technology to support (i) a national road pricing scheme and (ii) road pricing schemes in local authority areas.

Answer: ““The Feasibility Study of Road Pricing in the UK””, published by the Department for Transport in July 2004, (a copy of which is in the House Library), concluded that the equipment necessary to deliver a full position-based charging scheme would probably not be available in a mass-market, low-cost form, until 2014. The Department is continuing to explore how the market might develop over the coming years and what synergies and opportunities this could offer in terms of road pricing.Technologies which could support local or regional schemes, such as microwave tags and automatic number plat recognition, are well proven and are already used both in the UK and internationally. The costs of technology for local schemes will depend on the individual area and would need to be evaluated as part of the development of the business case for the scheme.

Secondary information