To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the number of road accidents involving school children of introducing British summer time in winter and double British summer time in summer. (172343)

I have been asked to reply.

A Government commissioned report by the Transport Research Laboratory published in October 1998, investigated the effects of the UK adopting single/double summertime (i.e. GMT + one hour in the winter, from October to March, and GMT + two hours in the summer, from March to October) thereby making the evenings lighter throughout the year. It concluded that, there could be a net saving of over 400 people killed or seriously injured per year in Great Britain, including over 100 deaths.

The 1998 research did not identify casualty savings by age.