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Roads: Noise

Asked by Freddie van MierloLiberal DemocratDepartment for TransportTabled Answered 4 July 2025UIN 64334

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate her Department has made of the levels of noise pollution on roads (a) in Oxfordshire and (b) nationally.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is responsible for creating noise maps as part of implementing the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006. The Department for Transport has not therefore made its own estimates.

DEFRA’s latest round of noise mapping, published in October 2024, was undertaken using a new geospatial noise model to calculate noise exposure levels with a higher level of accuracy and coverage than ever before. The latest maps of road noise take into account all public roads in England and the details on road noise can be found online at https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/6c7a54b5-bb79-4c90-923a-d3a33d0a3d9a/environmental-noise-directive-end-noise-mapping-agglomerations-england-round-2

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