My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport (Douglas Alexander) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

In my Written Ministerial Statement of Tuesday 18 July 2006 (Official Report, col. 87WS), the department published new targets for journey times in urban areas. The target included for Merseyside unfortunately used an interim version of Merseyside's target, rather than the final target that was adopted. Incorporating the final target has a small beneficial effect on the national journey time target, lowering it by just 0.03 per cent.

The revised success criterion is therefore as follows: the target will be deemed to have been met if, on target routes in the 10 largest urban areas in England, an average increase in travel of 4.4 per cent is accommodated within an increase of 3.6 per cent in person journey time per mile.

An updated PSA and technical note has been placed on the departmental website today. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House.