Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effects of turning off street lights in the early hours of the morning by some local authorities.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Decisions about street lighting are primarily for elected local councillors, reflecting local circumstances and views. The Government has not made an assessment of the effects of turning off street lights in the early hours of the morning by some local authorities.

However, a research study – The effect of reduced street lighting on road casualties and crime in England and Wales : controlled interrupted time series analysis – by R Steinbach et al, in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health published in July 2015 on the effects of street lighting on road safety and crime in England and Wales (attached) found little evidence of harmful effects of switch off, part-night lighting, dimming, or changes to white light/LEDs on road collisions or crime.