The Rural Roads Working Group was placed on hold in November 2020 as Department resourcing prioritised COVID and Brexit/Winter Response work. To this end, all work on the Working Group has been officially paused. The Working Group is still in the plenary stage with no objectives or outcomes set. The Rural Roads Working Group planning began in 2020 with discussions into finding a suitable chair, creating a diverse list of relevant stakeholders and setting a clear set of objectives. In keeping with the original scope of the Rural Roads Working Group, the attendees will ideally be real life rural road users, those who use and understand the challenges of the rural road. We will be looking for members representing horse rider organisations, walking and rambling groups, farmers associations, motorcycle and cycling charities, the emergency services and more. The aim of the Working Group will be to discuss with these knowledgeable members issues that they face whilst using rural roads, and how we can engage and provide targeted support to improve rural road safety that really works. Department for Transport staff will shortly begin restart on the Working Group and hope to be able to move on with the project in Summer 2021 as lockdown eases and the country reopens. We will be happy to provide the Committee with an update on this work as it gets underway.