The Department for Transport has not made a specific assessment of the cost-benefit ratio of traffic calming infrastructure compared with healthcare costs arising from road traffic collisions. Decisions on the provision of traffic calming measures are a matter for local highway authorities, which are responsible for managing their road networks and assessing local needs and priorities.

Statistics on the proportion of reported road casualties in England by deprivation level are published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-casualties-and-deprivation-factsheet-2024-england

Generally, there are a higher proportion of road casualties who live in the more deprived areas. In 2024, the difference in casualties between the most deprived 10% and least deprived 10% IMD decide was 4.9 percentage points, with 11.8% of casualties living in the most deprived 10% of areas, compared to 6.8% for the least deprived 10%.

Within the Road Safety Strategy, we committed to monitoring a Safety Performance Indicator regarding the proportion of casualties in road traffic collisions with Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) in the lowest decile. The Safety Performance Indicators will be monitored as part of delivery of the Road Safety Strategy.

On 7 January 2026 we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all.

The Strategy includes commitments to refresh best practice on setting local speed limits, update guidance on the use of speed and red-light cameras, and publish a new edition of the Manual for Streets.

The Strategy sets an ambitious target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65%, and 70% for children under 16, by 2035.

We recognise some local authorities may wish to go further and set more ambitious local targets. Many local authorities also have targets in place, many of which are a 50% reduction in KSIs by 2030, as well as some having vision zero targets. We welcome these approaches. We do not want to deter this ongoing work by unilaterally setting targets for local authorities.

Road safety is a shared responsibility, and this strategy reflects that. It considers action needed by government, local authorities, industry, emergency services and communities to tackle the causes of collisions and save lives.

The Department for Transport is providing all Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) with multi-year consolidated funding settlements, giving LTAs greater freedom and flexibility to make the strategic decisions that best impact their local areas. Elements of this funding settlement could be spent on traffic calming measures if they are a priority for the LTA.

The number of fatal collisions in the parliamentary constituency of Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North per year since 2020 are shown in the table:

The Department for Transport publishes statistics on reported road traffic collisions annually. The number of reported fatal road traffic collisions in Birmingham and Great Britain in each of the last five years is shown in the table below.

The Department for Transport has not made a comparative assessment of trends in the number of fatal road traffic collisions in Birmingham and Great Britain over the last five years.

Information on reported road casualties and collisions is published annually as part of the Department's road safety statistics, including data at local authority level. These statistics are available on GOV.UK.

The Department for Transport has not made assessments of the effectiveness of average speed camera systems in reducing collisions in France, Germany or the Netherlands, and has not made recent assessments specifically of the impact of average speed camera installations on casualty numbers, speeding violations or fatal road traffic collisions in urban areas.

The deployment and operation of speed camera systems are matters for local police forces and traffic authorities, which are responsible for decisions on where cameras are installed.

The Department provides guidance on the use of speed and red-light cameras and has committed to updating this guidance as part of the Road Safety Strategy, with evidence gathering and assessment forming part of that work. The Department does not maintain a central record of average speed camera systems installed in England or of local authorities that may have received funding support for such installations.

The Department for Transport has not made assessments of the effectiveness of average speed camera systems in reducing collisions in France, Germany or the Netherlands, and has not made recent assessments specifically of the impact of average speed camera installations on casualty numbers, speeding violations or fatal road traffic collisions in urban areas.

The deployment and operation of speed camera systems are matters for local police forces and traffic authorities, which are responsible for decisions on where cameras are installed.

The Department provides guidance on the use of speed and red-light cameras and has committed to updating this guidance as part of the Road Safety Strategy, with evidence gathering and assessment forming part of that work. The Department does not maintain a central record of average speed camera systems installed in England or of local authorities that may have received funding support for such installations.

The Department for Transport has not made assessments of the effectiveness of average speed camera systems in reducing collisions in France, Germany or the Netherlands, and has not made recent assessments specifically of the impact of average speed camera installations on casualty numbers, speeding violations or fatal road traffic collisions in urban areas.

The deployment and operation of speed camera systems are matters for local police forces and traffic authorities, which are responsible for decisions on where cameras are installed.

The Department provides guidance on the use of speed and red-light cameras and has committed to updating this guidance as part of the Road Safety Strategy, with evidence gathering and assessment forming part of that work. The Department does not maintain a central record of average speed camera systems installed in England or of local authorities that may have received funding support for such installations.

A public hearing is to be held on 18 March which representatives from Highways England will be attending to present their views on the multi-agency response to the M6 incident that occurred on 4 February. In addition, Highways England representatives will be meeting with me on the 22 March to consider a more streamlined approach by agencies when responding to similar incidents in the future.

A public hearing is to be held on 18 March which representatives from Highways England will be attending to present their views on the multi-agency response to the M6 incident that occurred on 4 February. In addition, Highways England representatives will be meeting with me on the 22 March to consider a more streamlined approach by agencies when responding to similar incidents in the future.

The structured debrief for this incident was carried out by Highways England on 10 February and included a representative from Central Motorway Police Group.

Three recommendations relating to multi-agency coordination resulted from this meeting and Highways England will continue to work closely with these agencies to take away the lessons learned.

Highways England conducted a structured debrief for this incident on 10 February. This is standard practice for any serious incident. It identified a number of recommendations, which are subject to ongoing discussions with other agencies. Once agreed, they will be used as lessons learnt for the management of future incidents.