Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182917 on Motorways: Safety Measures, in what format his Department holds data on the distance between emergency refuge areas on dynamic hard shoulder smart motorways; and if he will publish that data.

National Highways holds extensive mapping data of assets across its network. However, this data is not held in the format requested.

The Stocktake and Action Plan in 2020 launched a new standard to achieve closer spacing of places of relative safety (PRS), at 0.75 mile where feasible, up to a maximum of one mile. This was made a requirement for new All Lane Running (ALR) smart motorways schemes which entered the design phase from November 2020.

Therefore, any ALR smart motorway scheme that entered the design phase after this date is required to meet these standards.