Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the effectiveness of current litter performance indicators pertaining to value for money and customer satisfaction with highway maintenance; and, if they do not have one, whether they will make one.

In the second Road Investment Strategy (2020-25) National Highways were allocated £6.5bn for the operation and maintenance of the Strategic Road Network (SRN). A proportion of this funding will be allocated within National Highways to carry out its litter clearance duties. For 2021/22 National Highways reported that 60.8% of its network was predominately free of litter, refuse or detritus apart from some small items, in line with the Code of practice on litter and refuse published by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This was an improvement from 49.2% reported for 2020/21. The performance for 2022/23 will be published later this summer.

Customer satisfaction of the SRN is provided through the Strategic Road User Survey (SRUS) which is undertaken by Transport Focus, the independent watchdog for transport users. For period April 22 to March 23, 73% of those surveyed were either very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the overall safety, condition and management of the road network.