To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what savings have been made for the public purse in relation to each road detrunked in the last 11 years.

The 1998 Transport White Paper, "A New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone", established a programme of de-trunking to allow the Highways Agency to concentrate on the operation of a strategic road network that links the main centres of population and major transport hubs. The programme enables local highway authorities to set priorities for routes that primarily serve local needs, and supports the Government's aim to devolve more responsibilities to local communities.

The financial arrangements that have been established for the programme ensure that local highway authorities receive funding commensurate with the purpose the roads will continue to serve. This is taken as being broadly equivalent to the funds the Highways Agency would have spent on the road if it had continued to be a trunk road, because the de-trunking of a road through this programme is not expected to alter the quantity or nature of traffic using the road.

Consequently, the de-trunking programme is expected to be broadly cost-neutral.