To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the website Arrive Alive. (100607)

The primary function of the Arrive Alive website www.arrivealive.info is to provide information and to promote the Arrive Alive presentations. Since the focus is on the presentations, we have not yet carried out a full evaluation of the website’s effectiveness.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the impact on teenagers of website, www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk. (100608)

The THINK! website is primarily a tool for THINK! stakeholders, for example, Road Safety Officers, the police, teachers and health authorities. Its main purpose is to inform stakeholders about national marketing activities and provide them with information and materials, enabling them to market THINK! regionally.

The site is not designed for teenagers. We target them through advertising and PR. Our latest teen pedestrian campaign launched in August last year featured a commercial called “Cameraphone,” the first to be shot through a mobile phone camera. The commercial was placed on teen websites and then aired on television and later in cinema. It was supported by 6-sheet posters in the vicinity of secondary schools.

Teens found the commercial engaging. 97 per cent. said it was easy to understand; 95 per cent. said it made them think again about being careful on the roads and 91 per cent. thought it relevant as a similar accident could happen to them. The number of teenagers killed or seriously injured on our roads continues to fall.

The THINK! campaign’s communication work with teenagers has just won a National Business award in recognition of our use of insight, innovation and effectiveness.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions he has had with (a) motoring organisations and (b) the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents on ways to increase the road safety awareness of newly qualified drivers below the age of 21 years. (100609)

Department for Transport officials have had bi-lateral and multi-lateral meetings with motoring organisations and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents as part of the second three year review of the Road Safety Strategy. The review will identify those aspects of road safety which represent the greatest challenges and opportunities for reducing casualties over the next few years. Young drivers are a key consideration of the review. These organisations are also members of the Road Safety Advisory Panel which meets in December. The review will be on the agenda and I plan to chair the meeting.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many hits his Department’s website www.hedgehogs.gov.uk has received in each month since it was launched; and what assessment he has made of the impact of the website on improving road safety for children. (100612)

Hits to www.hedgehogs.gov.uk are set out in the following table. The hedgehogs website is designed to engage children and promote wider awareness of road safety. It is however but one channel within our wider suite of communication activities taken forward as part of the THINK! child road safety campaign. We use a broad mix of TV, cinema and online advertising, PR, partnership marketing and education materials to communicate child road safety messages.

We measure our activity through research tracking and ultimately through the number of children who are killed or seriously injured on our roads. Our recent child tracking research showed high awareness of the campaign with eight out of 10 children being aware of our advertising. Children were also very positive about the campaign and there is a clear correlation between traffic to the website and online marketing activity.

The increase in hits and visits to the website in March 2006 is a reflection of increased online advertising activity that month.

The Government have set a demanding target to reduce the number of children aged under 16 killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads by 50 per cent. by 2010, using the average for 1994-98 as the baseline. We are on course to exceed this target. The THINK! road safety campaign is an important component of our strategy to reduce deaths and injuries.