National Highways recognises that ragwort poisoning can have a devastating effect on horses, as well as being damaging to cattle and other animals. However, in the right place, and where there is no risk to animal welfare, ragwort contributes to the biodiversity of the flora and fauna of the countryside.

On the strategic road network, where ragwort presents a high risk of poisoning horses and livestock or spreading to fields used for the production of forage, National Highways prevents ragwort spreading. National Highways policy for Common Ragwort control applies Defra’s ‘Code of Practice on how to Prevent the Spread of Ragwort’.

Local highway authorities, including the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highway network in their area. Local highway authorities do not have a requirement to routinely inform the Department of their spend on pothole repairs.

During the past five financial years the Department has provided over £73 million to East Riding of Yorkshire Council for local highway maintenance, including the repairs of road defects such as potholes.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities also provides revenue funding to all local authorities, including the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, via the annual Revenue Support Grant. This is unringfenced and local authorities can use it for local highways maintenance.

^[1] Includes East Riding’s share of the extra £200 million for the year 2023/24 announced in the Budget 2023:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations/additional-budget-2023-highways-maintenance-and-pothole-repair-funding-2023-to-2024

Increasing volumes of electric vehicles (EVs) are likely to have minimal impacts on roads in general, including on deterioration and longevity. Vehicles have been increasing in weight for many years, driven by consumer choice and improving safety and environmental performance technologies. While some EVs are heavier than their internal combustion engine (ICE) equivalents, there are many examples where EVs are lighter than the heaviest ICE vehicles currently on the market.

Maximum axle weight or gross vehicle weight limits are in place to avoid excessive road wear and damage. Heavy commercial vehicles, rather than passenger vehicles, are the dominant factor determining road design and weight limits.

The Department works closely with the highways sector to promote best practice and to encourage innovation and trialling of new technologies. In 2019, the Department provided £22.9 million for a ‘Live Labs’ innovation programme, managed by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT), as a way of encouraging innovation across the English local road network.

Based on the previous Live Labs success, the Department has this year confirmed an additional £30 million for a second round of the ADEPT Live Labs programme, with a focus on decarbonising local highways infrastructure and assets to improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of local highways maintenance and repair. This will see seven projects, grouped by four interconnected carbon-related themes, being led by local highway authorities working alongside commercial and academic partners.

The Department is working closely with the UK Roads Leadership Group’s Resilience, Biodiversity & Climate Board to assess the impact of climate change on the highway network and to develop guidance for local highway authorities to make their highway assets, including road surfaces, more resilient.

After reviewing funding options, to help local authorities plan effectively for managing their roads and improve asset management, the Government has moved to a three-year funding settlement for local highway maintenance amounting to approximately £915 million of capital funding per year. This funding covers the financial years 2022/23 to 2024/25 and is for local highway authorities across England outside of London and the Mayoral Combined Authorities which receive separate funding.

Mayoral Combined Authorities are receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements amounting to £5.7 billion over five years, which includes funding for maintenance for their local highway networks.

The TS2010 is a specification that has been adopted in Scotland because it is considered that it offers durability benefits that are tailored to their environmental conditions. For the Strategic Road Network in England, National Highways has a wide range of Thin Surface Course Systems products some of which are very similar to TS2010 which provide the associated durability benefits while meeting National Highways’ additional safety requirements. For local roads in England, Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances.

The specification for road surface toppings used in the whole of the UK is defined in the Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works (MCHW) and Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB), both these documents are owned and manged by National Highways. This includes general content (used by all organisations) and national specific content for National Highways, Transport Scotland, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure. National specific content is included for asphalt surfacing materials based on local requirements linked to types of road, traffic levels, environmental factors (such as weather) and noise. These local requirements are not consistent across and between the road authorities; therefore, each organisation has different ranges of options.

In respect of the Strategic Road Network (SRN), National Highways specifies the requirements for drainage design and maintenance in its Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB). This suggests that those responsible for the network should:

o remove surface water from the carriageway as quickly as possible to provide safety and minimum nuisance to the road users;

o maximise longevity of the pavement and its associated earthworks;

o minimise the impact of the runoff on the receiving environment in terms of flood risk and water quality; and,

o manage water flows from earthworks and structures associated with the roads.

On the strategic road network, drainage work is carried out via planned renewal and improvement work funded by the Roads Investment Strategy (RIS), with performance monitored and reported to the Office for Rail and Road.

On other roads, drainage gullies are the responsibility of the respective local highway authority. Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, to maintain the local highway network. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances.

The Pothole Action Fund that ran from 2016/17 to 2020/21 was allocated to eligible local highway authorities through the Section 31 grant process. Funding provided in this way is not ringfenced as set out in the Local Government Act 2003, but grant funding letters come with grant agreements which include conditions of spend that local authorities must adhere to.

The Department for Transport (DfT) allocates capital funding through the section 31 grant process so that local highways authorities can most effectively spend this funding on maintaining and improving their respective networks, based upon their local knowledge, circumstances, and priorities.

Section 31 grant funding is not ringfenced as set out in the Local Government Act 2003; it is up to the highway authority how to spend this funding to fulfil its statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980. Local decision makers are democratically accountable for the decisions they take.

DfT strongly encourages authorities to spend their allocations on highways maintenance activities and advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes. This considers all parts of the highway network, such as gulleys, bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns – and not just the fixing of potholes.

Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. It is for each local authority to decide how best to do this and it is for local decision makers to determine how to prioritise local spending.

At the recent Autumn Statement, the Chancellor confirmed the three-year settlement announced at Spending Review 2021; approximately £915 million capital funding per year for local highways maintenance.

This funding is for eligible English local authorities outside of London and the mayoral combined authorities in receipt of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS).

Well-planned maintenance to prevent potholes and other defects from forming in the first place is vital, and the Department for Transport advocates a risk-based, whole life-cycle asset management approach to all aspects of the local highway network. The Department also encourages good practice in highway maintenance for all local highway authorities and endorses the UK Roads Leadership Group’s Code of Practice; ‘Well Managed Highway Infrastructure’.

The Department for Transport does not have any plans to impose any new requirements on local traffic authorities. They are responsible for taking the decisions in respect to the speed limits on their roads, because they have the local knowledge making them the best placed to do so.

The Department for Transport issues non-mandatory guidance to English local authorities on setting speed limits, to assist their decision making. The guidance suggests that they keep their speed limits under review with changing circumstances.

The Department published a comprehensive three-year evaluation of the effect of 20mph signed-only limits on 22 November 2018.

The research substantially strengthens the evidence base on perceptions, speeds and early outcomes associated with 20mph speed limits, and is the only major UK study to consider multiple case study areas and provide a national view.

The headline findings were:

• 20mph limits are supported by the majority of residents and drivers
• There has been a small reduction in median speed (less than 1mph).
• Vehicles travelling at higher speeds before the introduction of the 20mph limit have reduced their speed more than those already travelling at lower speeds.
• There is insufficient evidence to conclude that that there has been a significant change in collisions and casualties following the introduction of 20mph limits in residential areas.
• In one city centre case study there has been a significant reduction in collisions and casualties.

The Government has made progress towards spreading opportunity around the country since 2019, alongside mitigating the worst effects of the pandemic, with £5 billion for Project Gigabit to bring gigabit-capable broadband to 85% of the UK by 2025, and the £1 billion Shared Rural Network deal with mobile operators delivering 4G coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025. Gigabit coverage has increased from 10% to over 60% in less than two years, and public investment will target premises that are hardest to reach, ensuring no areas are left behind.

In the last twelve months, gigabit-capable network coverage has almost doubled in Yorkshire and quadrupled in the North East. To ensure that rural areas are supported, our procurements for rural areas where commercial roll-out may not occur are already live in several parts of the North, including Cumbria and the North East, offering hundreds of millions of pounds of support to suppliers who are helping us to level up.

The Government is also clear that well maintained local road networks are a key form of local transport. The Government is already investing more than £5 billion from 2020 to 2025 for highways maintenance to local highways authorities across England, enough to fill millions of potholes a year, repair dozens of bridges and resurface hundreds of roads up and down the country. This is in addition to the £2.6 billion to deliver over 50 road upgrades and builds on our commitment to accelerate delivery of the A66, ensuring that it is open for traffic five years sooner than the original plan.

As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, Government is providing £51 million for smaller local transport improvements across the North West, as well as £280 million for local roads maintenance between 2022-23 and 2024-25 to local authorities not receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. In Yorkshire and the Humber, £194 million has been committed for local roads maintenance between 2022-23 and 2024-25, and £33 million for transport improvements across the region. The Government has invested over £40 million in highways maintenance schemes through the former York, North Yorkshire, and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Deal, including £16.7 million in the East Riding of Yorkshire. In addition, through our Getting Building Fund programme, the Government has invested over £2 million in a Hull and East Yorkshire Highways Resilience Programme, £6m to deliver reconstruction of the A19 at Chapel Haddlesey in the Selby district, and up to £3.6 million to support a North Yorkshire digital infrastructure programme.

National Highways has a legal responsibility to prevent Japanese knotweed from spreading to adjoining land where it is on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) and where National Highways is the landowner.

National Highways works on the principle that once a location has been identified and the extent of the infestation established, an appropriate method of control is then enacted to ensure eradication and to prevent re-infestation. Where Japanese knotweed is identified on adjacent land, National Highways will work with landowners to ensure eradication and prevention. National Highways, its service providers and supply chain, follow the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Environment Agency guidance.

On the local network, local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area, this includes issues such as overgrown vegetation. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances.

Local highway authorities such as East Riding of Yorkshire Council, have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. Authorities do not have a duty to light their network but, where lighting has been provided, have a duty to maintain it.

Whilst it is for each local highway authority to decide the level of service they wish their street lighting network to deliver, it is important that local authorities consider the safety implications, cost, and environmental savings before reducing the hours of operation, or dimming lighting levels within their area. The Department advises councils to monitor the impacts following any street lighting reduction to ensure they can reverse any changes if the need arises. Local authorities should also liaise closely with the emergency services, community safety, and other key partners when considering their lighting needs and policy.

Utility companies need to access the highway to repair, maintain and install the infrastructure on which we all rely. But that does not mean works should take any longer than is necessary.

This Government has been reforming and modernising the legislative framework in recent years to reduce the congestion caused by works and to provide up-to-date information to road users. We have set up and delivered Street Manager - our digital service that is used by all local authorities and utility companies for planning and managing works and which now streams open data on live and planned works. We recently consulted on further reform www.gov.uk/government/consultations/street-manager-and-permit-scheme-changes

We published two evaluations on the effectiveness of permit schemes that almost every authority now operates (in 2018) and the pioneer lane rental schemes in Kent and in London (in 2016): www.gov.uk/government/publications/street-works-permit-schemes-evaluation-of-effectiveness;www.gov.uk/government/publications/street-works-lane-rental-evaluation Both of these informed further policy development including our decision to allow new lane rental schemes to be set up. Surrey County Council operate the latest scheme that began in April 2021.

The Department has in place a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation programme for the trials. Any future rules for e-scooters may not be exactly the same as the rules in trials, but they will be based on the evidence gathered. This evaluation includes a range of data sources and approaches including data sharing arrangements with operators, surveys, interviews and focus groups with users and non-users and interviews with key local and national stakeholders. Regarding e-scooters and associated criminality, Ministers and officials have been in regular contact with senior police officers through the NPCC as well as the Home Office in order to understand any concerns and issues. However, I would note that policing is a matter for the Home Office. A final report on the trials will be published in spring 2022.

Schools are free to cover teaching about road safety and the highway code as part of their duty to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, including through their personal, social, health and economic education provision. Schools can draw on resources available from many providers including, in relation to road safety, the THINK! Campaign developed by the Department for Transport, which is accessible here: https://www.think.gov.uk.

The Government also funds the Bikeability scheme which provides pupils with high quality cycling training. Bikeability allows pupils to gain practical skills and understanding of how to cycle on roads, and increases pupils’ confidence and skills for all types of cycling.