Severn River Crossing

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what information he holds on the number of vehicles in category three which used the Severn Crossing in each of the last five years; and if he will make an estimate of the number of such vehicles registered in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Northern Ireland, (d) Scotland and (e) other EU member states which used that crossing in each such year. (288048)

The numbers of category 3 vehicles recorded travelling westbound on both Severn crossings in the last five years are recorded in the following table.

	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004
January	137,759	134,869	129,761	127,078	129,840
February	136,686	129,896	126,091	128,835	128,570
March	135,672	149,375	148,576	142,514	149,912
April	142,564	138,498	132,031	142,484	138,525
May	141,324	148,754	145,714	138,623	138,604
June	137,414	145,641	147,376	145,306	146,776
July	144,900	151,450	143,295	142,417	148,518
August	129,931	146,676	143,308	140,714	139,502
September	138,264	141,487	142,566	143,872	147,489
October	142,618	154,104	148,308	143,056	144,250
November	128,216	151,385	149,910	146,799	148,896
December	119,414	126,566	126,594	127,921	132,820
Total	1,634,762	1,718,701	1,683,530	1,669,619	1,693,702

The number of category 3 vehicles registered in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and other EU member states which use the crossings is not known. The operator of the crossings, Severn River Crossing Plc, does not collate such data.

Volume 496: debated on Monday 20 July 2009