Written question asked by Theresa Villiers (Conservative) on Thursday, 14 May 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 18 May 2009. It was answered by Geoffrey Hoon (Labour) on Tuesday, 2 June 2009 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Departmental Research

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much his Department spent on research and development in each of the last 10 years; and what the 10 projects on which the highest expenditure was incurred were.

Answer: Information about Departments' annual spend on research and development is published by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) in Table 3.2 of Science Engineering and Technology (SET) Statistics. This is available on the DIUS website.The project information requested is not readily available. For example, some projects are collaboratively funded; some are interdependent with others; and projects can take a number of years to complete. However, from the information readily available, the 10 requested projects since the Department for Transport was formed in May 2002 are:"1. Co-operative Crash Injury Study—Phases 5-8 (£12,900,000)""2. On-the-Spot Accident Investigation—Phases 1-3 (£8,018,000)""3. The Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation Environment (£4,084,000)""4. Compatibility of Cars in Crashes (£2,979,000)""5. European New Car Secondary Safety Assessment Testing Programme (£2,700,000)""6. Compatibility and Frontal and Side Impact Test Procedures (£2,272,000)""7. Intelligent Speed Adaptation (£2,015,000)""8. Protective helmets for motor and pedal cyclists (£1,720,000)""9. Mobile Environmental Sensing System (£1,716,000)""10. New Car Primary Safety Assessment Programme—Phase 2 (£1,501,000)"These figures represent the total departmental value of the contracts let, some of which are still open.

Secondary information