Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of smart motorways; and how many penalty notices have been issued for non-compliance with smart motorway restrictions on each motorway.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Smart motorways are an important part of the modernisation of England’s motorways. The Government’s policy is to implement smart motorways on the busiest sections of motorway, as they provide a way to increase capacity and improve performance without the need to widen the road.
Smart motorways have reduced congestion and improved journey time reliability, by making the hard shoulder available as a traffic lane and using variable speed limits to smooth traffic flow. Each scheme has to meet a strict safety objective, which is to be at least as safe as a traditional motorway.
An assessment of the first two smart motorway ‘all lane running’ schemes, on the M25, shows that they are delivering the intended benefits. This assessment is detailed in the ‘M25 J5-7 Monitoring Third Year Report’ and the ‘M25 J23-27 Monitoring Third Year Report’, both published on 16 July 2018 by Highways England.
The issuing of penalty notices is a matter for the police force in each area, since Highways England is not an enforcement body.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of electric car charging points in each county in England and Wales; and what plans they have to increase the number of such charging points.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Highways England has reviewed chargepoint provision within 20 miles of the strategic road network across relevant counties in England to determine the gaps in charge point availability and to identify locations of potential sites for new charge points to meet their commitment that motorists will be no more than 20 miles from a charge point on 95% of the strategic road network. Highways England has so far given grants to 5 local authorities (Mid Suffolk, Ryedale, South Somerset, Worthing and Shropshire) to deliver 19 chargepoints and is working with BP Chargemaster and Swarco to deliver a further 59, which will all be installed by Spring 2020.
The UK now has over 17,000 publicly accessible chargepoints, including more than 1,700 rapid devices – one of the largest networks in Europe. Our vision is to have one of the best infrastructure networks in the world for electric vehicles, and we want chargepoints to be accessible, affordable and secure. In addition to the Highways England funding, the Government provides grants to fund chargepoints at homes, workplaces and on residential streets. These measures, along with the £400m public-private Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund, will see thousands more chargepoints installed across the UK.