Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on trialling noise emission cameras on public highways; and what steps he is taking to enable local authorities to engage in trial schemes.

The Department’s initial trials of a prototype acoustic camera have concluded. The Government anticipates the results will be published in the spring following a re-phasing of the work due to pressures arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Options for future work are still under consideration and so the Government cannot commit to trials with any local authorities at this point. Nonetheless, if future research involves road trials, then we would welcome involvement of local authorities to help ensure that any new system is robust.