Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the aim of the Smart motorways programme to increase road capacity, how they intend to manage the additional emissions resulting from increased numbers of vehicles using the roads.

Smart Motorways are at the core of Highways England’s £15bn investment programme to transform England’s Strategic Road Network, helping to ease congestion and improve traffic flow. Keeping traffic moving reduces stop-start decelerations and accelerations, which in itself has emissions benefits.

Highways England undertake an environmental assessment of each Smart Motorway scheme and if any measures are found to be necessary to manage emissions, these would be developed as part of scheme preparation work.