To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the Government will implement a new rural road hierarchy. [98025]

Following the publication of the Rural Road Hierarchy Report in November 2001 we are progressing work to improve safety across our rural road network. This includes the development of a framework to assess what speeds are appropriate together with surveys of what speeds are actually being driven on rural roads. The first results of this work should be available shortly and will feed into other work including a review of the guidance on setting speed limits due to start later this year.