Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the potential impact of the use of digital evidence in the enforcement around insecure roads of litter laws upon (a) road safety, and (b) the Highways Agency litter performance indicator.

Under Section 8 of the Road Traffic Act (1991), a person is guilty of an offence if they use, or permit or cause another person to use, a motor vehicle or trailer on a road when the condition of the motor vehicle or trailer or of its accessories or equipment, or the weight, position or distribution of its load or the manner in which it is secured, is such that the use of the motor vehicle or trailer involves a danger of injury to any person. Enforcement in this area is conducted by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s enforcement officers and the police.

National Highways engages with organisations who have the necessary powers to take enforcement action. Commercial operators and drivers are legally obliged to ensure their loads are effectively secured, and risk finding themselves subject to disciplinary action by the Traffic Commissioner responsible for the issue of heavy goods operator licences, if found to be littering with an unsecure load.

National Highways are currently working with a local authority to trial the use of Artificial Intelligence and camera technology to provide evidence of littering to support local authority enforcement. This trial forms part of National Highways’ approach to reduce littering and litter on the strategic road network, thus increasing performance against its litter performance metric. If the trial is successful, National Highways will consider potential future roll out.