Therefore, that brings us to the final item of the afternoon, which is the short debate, and I call on John Griffiths, once again, to present the short debate in his name—John Griffiths.

Diolch Llywydd. I have given a minute each to Joyce Watson, Mike Hedges and David Melding. 

I'd like to use this short debate today to discuss the benefits of introducing default 20-mph speed limits in inner urban areas and why I believe this should be a Welsh Government policy for the whole of Wales. Twenty miles per hour would apply across the country in built-up, residential areas where people live. Local authorities would be able to exempt roads if local circumstances warranted. This would reverse the current position where 30 mph generally applies subject to lower limits for particular roads.

The benefits are many: it makes roads safer to protect life and limb and allows local communities to reclaim their streets. That would facilitate play, cycling and walking, and greater community cohesion and interaction. This, Llywydd, I believe, is an idea and policy whose time has come. It is already established and growing across the world. In the Netherlands, 70 per cent of urban roads have a 30 km or lower limit. In Scandinavian countries, it is becoming the norm in villages and towns. In fact, throughout Europe, these restrictions are increasingly being set across complete authorities, with exceptions for major roads with segregated facilities such as cycle paths. In comparison, the UK has been a late starter, but in the last 10 years, over 25 per cent of the population have gained a 20-mph limit on the streets where they live, learn, shop or work.

Many of our major cities, including Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh have made the change; 43 per cent of Londoners are living on such roads, and 75 per cent of people in inner London boroughs. Bristol has had great success in adopting this approach, and even complete counties, such as Lancashire, Sefton, Calderdale, Clackmannanshire and Fife, have done so. Our fellow devolved nations are also looking to introduce this policy. In November last year, in Scotland, Green MSP, Mark Ruskell, proposed such a Bill. It is currently out for consultation and would be hugely significant for road safety if passed. I am calling on Welsh Government to do the same.

In the past year, Wales had seen over 3,000 car traffic accidents that resulted in injury or death. In my home city of Newport, there have been more than 140 accidents with three tragically ending in fatalities. Further action is required to reduce this toll on our families and communities. Driving through social housing estates with cars parked along both sides of the road and children playing, drivers have very little time to react if a child runs out into the road from between parked vehicles. Public Health Wales's most recent report by Dr Sarah Jones suggests that if all current 30-mph roads in Wales became 20 mph, six to 10 lives would be saved and 1,200 to 2,000 casualties avoided each year, at a value of prevention of £58 million to £84 million.

The case for change is well evidenced and made. The International Transport Forum of the OECD, in a recent report on 'Speed and Crash Risk', states categorically that where motorised vehicles and vulnerable road users share the same space, such as in residential areas, 20 mph is the recommended maximum. It highlights what we already know: speed has a direct influence on crash occurrence and severity. With higher driving speeds, the number of crashes and the crash severity increases disproportionately. With lower speeds, the number of crashes and the crash severity decrease. Eighty five per cent of pedestrians will survive a 30 km/h—that is 18.5 mph—impact, whereas 80 per cent of pedestrians will die in a 50 km/h, 32-mph impact.

The severity of a collision follows from the laws of physics. At higher speeds, the kinetic energy released in a crash increases, as does the trauma experienced by those struck by, or occupying, the vehicles involved. The increase in crash risk is explained by the fact that when speed increases, the time to react to changes in the environment is shorter and manoeuvrability is reduced.

Lowering the default limit from 30 mph to 20 mph in built-up urban areas significantly decreases the risk of accidents. It may also save time, help make our air cleaner, and encourage more active lifestyles. People wrongly assume that lower limits delay journey times, yet average city speeds are generally well below 20 mph, owing to congestion and queues. Traffic flows more freely at 20 mph than 30 mph. Drivers make better use of road space by parking closer and junctions work more efficiently, and at a higher capacity, as it is easier to merge.

On air quality, mathematical modelling across a range of studies has demonstrated that improvements should result. Research by Imperial College London on speed restriction shows that where traffic flow was interrupted, there were higher emission rates. This study concluded that it would be incorrect to assume 20 mph would be detrimental to ambient local air quality, as the effects on vehicle emissions are mixed.

Lower limits reduce congestion by increasing flow rates and by smoothing traffic through urban environments where cars would usually be stopping and starting. NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, recommends urban speed reduction for less pollution. Their guidance says 20-mph limits without physical measures in urban areas help avoid unnecessary acceleration and deceleration. Smoother driving with less wasteful braking and acceleration cut fuel use by 12 per cent in Germany after 30 km/h limits were implemented. Air quality also improves, since moving traffic emits less pollution than when standing still with engines on. Imperial College recommendations include reducing speed limits on urban roads and to incentivise cycling.

Llywydd, the introduction of this policy would also benefit public health in a number of ways in accordance with the future generations and well-being Act. In built-up areas, more people would feel comfortable to walk and cycle safely, and there would be a more pleasant environment for communities, encouraging community interaction and children's outdoor play.

Sustrans Cymru point to evidence that moving to slower speeds will lead to safer and healthier communities with greater levels of walking and cycling. In 2013, the charity surveyed residents in Wales, with six in 10 supporting 20-mph limits as the default speed for where they live. As a Welsh Government Minister, I was pleased to take forward the Active Travel (Wales) Act, passed in 2013. It places a legal duty on local authorities in Wales to audit existing routes for walking and cycling and then plan and deliver a comprehensive network of routes to work, school and local facilities. Twenty miles per hour limits will facilitate this.

Over the past few generations, unfortunately, there has been a dramatic reduction in the freedom given to children to get out and about without adult supervision. A comparative study by the Policy Studies Institute, spanning 40 years, shows that in 1971, 86 per cent of children of primary school age in the UK were allowed to travel home from school alone. By 2010, it was just 25 per cent. Traffic is a major factor in this change and one of the major barriers to children's freedom to play outside. Our residential streets have become hostile environments for children and teenagers, where informal street play has largely been displaced by the car.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which enshrines the right to play, states that consideration should be given to creating child-friendly urban and rural environments through road traffic measures, including speed limits. And Play Wales have provided important information on the role that 20-mph speed limits could have in improving children's ability to play—an activity that is central to their physical, mental, social and emotional health and well-being. The policy is also recommended by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Wales, which states that it might have a most wide-reaching and positive effect.

Llywydd, there is a pressing need to develop robust interventions that will have positive effects on the challenges facing public health today, on air pollution, obesity and road traffic injuries, which are all interrelated. A default 20-mph limit can play a major role and we do, I believe, need national consistency with local discretion to achieve the necessary change. These matters are as much about a public consensus as they are about traffic management. If we want consideration of the amenity and safety of residents of communities to be a national norm, then, at some stage, we need a national debate. We need to put communities first and redefine the spaces between our homes. I am a strong advocate of this change and I do believe that it will allow us to reclaim our roads and create community streets—community streets that become a better place to be.

So, over the last few months, I've met with Rod King, the founder of 20's Plenty for Us, an organisation that campaigns for this change, and I'd very much like to thank him for his expertise and advice. When the Assembly resumes in the autumn term, I will be hosting a round-table event on 3 October to discuss this topic further. I'm delighted that Rod King will be there, along with Public Health Wales, academics, Jeff Cuthbert, Sustrans Cymru and Welsh Government. 

Llywydd, this is a policy that will deliver important and significant benefits for our communities. I very much hope that we can continue to build and strengthen our campaign and that Welsh Government makes 20 plenty for Wales.

Thank you, John, for bringing this debate. I debated this many, many years ago and I certainly believe that 20's plenty. I think that want to ask the Government to consider the trunk roads that run through parts of my constituency. I've been contacted by Llanfair Caereinion on one such matter, where schoolchildren have to cross a main road to get to their school. Very often, they have to do the same to get to parks or anywhere else they need to go. So, I think that, whilst local authorities are responsible in the main, we do have to look at trunk roads.

Can I thank John Griffiths for giving me a minute in this debate? What's the difference between 20 mph and 30 mph? It doesn't sound very much, does it? Well, the perception, the corner vision, how much you actually see, increases the slower you're going. Your reaction time—. For those who did their driving test many years ago, the back page of 'The Highway Code' told you how long it would take to stop at different speeds. And the faster you're going, the longer your reaction time and the longer it takes you to stop when you actually do react. And the crash outcomes—the faster you're going, the more likely you are to seriously damage what are often little people.

I'll just very briefly recount an article that was in the South Wales Evening Post on Saturday, where Robyn Lee, the columnist, wrote about seeing an accident involving a child who just ran straight into the road and was hit by a car. It wasn't a serious accident; the child was just bruised. Why? Not because it was 20 mph, but because, fortunately, there was a very long traffic jam. We can't rely on traffic jams to keep our children safe; we need 20-mph zones.

I enthusiastically support the case put forward by John Griffiths. I do think that the default should be at 20 mph. There's overwhelming evidence. I think there's popular demand increasing for it. Some survey data were published today about how the public are getting much more demanding of what they expect in their cities, and they want less reliance on cars and more responsible use of cars. The 20's Plenty campaign has, I think, been a huge success. I commend the 20's Plenty campaign in Sully, which I can say today has submitted a petition to the Vale of Glamorgan Council, signed by 718 residents of Sully. I've met with that campaign and I wish them well. I also commend the great work done in Cardiff; they may not quite be up to Bristol's standard yet, but they're making real progress in moving to 20 mph being the default in Cardiff as well. It's time for this change. We should do it. We should set it as the default and then justify, or allow councils to justify, having it higher in select places.

The Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport to reply to the debate. Ken Skates.

Can I thank John Griffiths for raising this important matter for debate today? I know that it's an issue that he has felt strongly about for many years, and I'm very pleased to be able to respond to his and other Members' comments. Our new powers over national speed limits offer us opportunities to explore how they may be useful to help us meet our well-being goals in making Wales a more inclusive, healthy and thriving country, and there's been a lot of interest in this very topic of late. When Dr Sarah Jones and Huw Brunt published their research, which concluded that a default 20-mph limit in urban areas could improve road safety and air quality in Wales, we were delighted to invite them along to our active travel conference last year to discuss the issue, and their insight and contribution has assisted greatly. Lower traffic speeds can have a positive impact on road safety by potentially reducing the numbers of collisions and also their severity. And other potential benefits include making road environments more people-friendly overall, reducing severance, encouraging active travel by reducing the speed differential between motorised and active modes, and improving the perception of safety. All of these benefits can only be realised, of course, if lower speed limits are adhered to by the majority of drivers, or if speeds are noticeably reduced, at least.

Up to now, local authorities in Wales have used 20-mph limits overwhelmingly in closely targeted areas. These may cover sometimes only a short stretch of road and sometimes a larger network of streets, and over the years we have funded hundreds of 20-mph zones and limits, from our safe routes and also from our road safety grants right across Wales. These schemes are developed in consultation—that is important—in consultation with communities, and are generally very well supported and welcomed by those communities. I must say in response to Joyce Watson, who raised a really important point about Welsh Government's responsibility, and not just the responsibility of local authorities, we have carried out a comprehensive review of our trunk roads and as a consequence we've introduced our multi-year programme of establishing part-time 20-mph limits near nearly all schools on or close to our trunk roads. These operate at the start and at the end of the school day to create a safe environment for children travelling to and from school, and they also encourage behavioural change, and drive behavioural change, by motorists. Now, this programme will be completed this financial year and will cover 45 locations on our strategic road network. I'm pleased to say that, in Fishguard, we've introduced a permanent 20-mph limit on the trunk road, and, based on evidence and consultation, I'd be more than happy to consider permanent 20-mph limits elsewhere.

Now, as I stated, in order to achieve the positive impacts, lower speed limits need to be complied with, as John Griffiths rightly said. Twenty miles per hour speed limits have proven most effective in reducing speeds where they're either part of 20-mph zones, in which the speed limits are supported by physical measures such as road humps, tables and road narrowings, or where the existing physical environment has constraints that mean the lower speeds actually feel right for the motorist. Llywydd, area-wide signed-only speed limits have achieved varied, but generally smaller, reductions in average speeds. They are, however, becoming more common, in particular in larger urban areas. This includes Cardiff, where area-wide 20-mph speed limits are being rolled out, and I commend the council for doing this. As a result, the evidence base is growing. In deciding if and how we use our new powers, it will be very useful to look in detail at the experiences from these places alongside the comprehensive research carried out for the Department for Transport on the impact of 20-mph speed limits in a diverse range of locations across the UK, and that's due to report imminently.

To supplement this, Llywydd, I've also commissioned an evidence review of published evaluations ourselves. Now, as John Griffiths said in the previous debate, what works in Caernarfon might not work in Carmarthen. So, it's important to also consider alternative or additional means of improving road safety. There are other measures that can contribute to improving safety on our roads, such as a graduated driving licence, which I'm a supporter of, and I'm also a big fan of the play streets initiative, which essentially hands roads back to the communities, particularly for young people for the purpose of play.

I'm also supportive of methods of design to eliminate the most common cause of road traffic accidents, and that's driver distraction—methods such as encouraging motorists to minimise the risk of being distracted themselves by making sure that they don't switch on a mobile phone when they're driving, and to ensure that any entertainment that they have in their car is minimised so they're not distracted by that. I think the urban environment that is planned is also crucial in ensuring that driver distraction is minimised.

So, I strongly believe, Llywydd, that this topic merits very serious consideration, and I'm a strong supporter of 20 is plenty. We'll look at all the available evidence and we'll discuss it with our partners, before the proposals for consultation with the wider public are published.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, and that brings today's proceedings to a close.

The meeting ended at 18:42.