ABSTRACT
This Chapter looks at the main policy outputs of UK central government in the period 1987–2001 relating to transport in England and Wales. This timeframe provides a period greater than ten years to look at policy change, a time suggested as necessary to assess the dynamics of policy change (Sabatier and Jenkins Smith, 1993). 1987 is chosen as it represents a change in national administration, being the year in which the second Thatcher administration gave way to the third. It also marks a time when criticism of roads policy in the UK was reaching new heights. This period also covers a change in the ruling party, from Conservative to Labour in May 1997. This change is useful in assessing the level of continuity in party policy over transport, an issue discussed as having little previous impact on policy when considered in historical perspective in Chapter 3.
