Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of (a) the safety of the distance between refuges on smart motorways (b) the potential need to review those distances as a result of safety issues and risk assessments.

The Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, published in March 2020, committed to a new standard for spacing of places to stop in an emergency. For future All Lane Running (ALR) Motorway schemes, places to stop in an emergency will be ¾ of a mile apart where feasible, with a maximum spacing of 1 mile apart. Highways England published the new design standard – GD 301 – in October 2020.

The Stocktake Action Plan also made a commitment to consider a national programme of retrofitting on ALR motorways where places to stop in an emergency are more than one mile apart, drawing on evidence from the programme to deliver additional areas on the M25. That review will be completed by April 2022.