Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution

Two years after publishing its report on transport and the environment the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution announced today that it is going to review the issues raised by that report in the light of subsequent developments.

There is now general recognition that transport presents the UK with an enormous challenge -technical, organisational and social. The aim must be to prevent road traffic causing serious environmental damage while at the same time securing the access people want for their livelihoods and for leisure, and enabling the UK economy to provide sustainable increases in standards of living. Following the Royal Commission's original report the government launched a national debate on transport. April of this year saw publication of Transport - the way forward, the first government paper on overall transport policy for 20 years.

The Royal Commission welcomes the government's acceptance that a fundamentally different, and more strategic, approach to transport policy is required for the future. It now wants to make a further contribution to the vital task of developing an environmentally sustainable transport policy.

Because this review will cover the subject of a previous report, and the issues have now been widely discussed, the Royal Commission has decided not to follow its normal practice with new studies of inviting submissions of evidence. Instead, it will take as the initial basis for its inquiry the considerable volume of existing material, such as statements produced in the course of the national debate and reports by other bodies on specific aspects of transport. It will also take account of new research findings, advances in technology and regulation, and the redirection of government policies that has already taken place.

The Royal Commission is inviting anyone interested to draw its attention to relevant existing material of a factual or analytical kind that has appeared since the original report was published in October 1994 and which might otherwise be overlooked by the Commission, or which those responding regard as especially important. Letters with the same invitation are being sent direct to organisations and individuals with whom the Secretariat is already in touch as a result of the original study. The date by which the Commission wishes to receive copies of, or references to, such existing material is Tuesday 10 December.

The Royal Commission has identified certain aspects of the subject on which it would be particularly like to be informed of recent material of a factual or analytical kind. These are:

the environmental impacts of different modes of transport per tonne-km or per passenger-km, either in terms of direct impacts or on the basis of life-cycle analysis the costs imposed by pollution from vehicle emissions or by traffic congestion, or by measures to reduce such pollution or restrain traffic the aggregate demands for transport created by different patterns of development the impact on travel of the present rules for company cars the success achieved by measures to reduce car dependence the effectiveness of measures to increase the use of public transport, cycling or walking the effectiveness of present regulatory or administrative structures.

In order to focus on the most pressing issues related to land transport, the review will not have such a wide scope as the original report. Subjects which the Royal Commission has decided not to revisit on this occasion are air transport, the environmental impact of shipping and the recycling of the materials used in building vehicles and roads.

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