Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is planning to take in response to safety concerns relating to smart motorways.

Since assuming office, the Secretary of State’s focus has been to ensure that Smart Motorways are safer than conventional motorways, committing an additional £500 million in infrastructure, technology and communications to make these roads safer.

We welcome the Transport Select Committee’s (TSC) report Rollout and safety of smart motorways, published on 2 November 2021, and its scrutiny. The Department will now consider its recommendations in detail, providing a formal response in due course. This is a serious piece of work which we will engage with closely in the months ahead. We are pleased that the TSC recognises that reinstating the hard shoulder on all all-lane running motorways could put more drivers and passengers at risk of death and serious injury and that we are right to focus on upgrading their safety.