Lord Harries of Pentregarth
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the post opening project evaluations of smart motorways in relation to (1) safety, and (2) value for money.
Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, for his Question. I assure him that safety is our top priority. While National Highways reports show that smart motorways are meeting or exceeding safety objectives in all but one upgrade, we know that people need to feel safe as well as be safe. That is why National Highways invested some £900 million to improve safety and educate drivers. The reports show that these upgrades have added vital capacity to some of the country’s busiest roads and are largely on course to meet their environmental goals.
Lord Harries of Pentregarth (CB)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply, but according to National Highways’ official reports, these big projects to convert hard shoulders on the M1, M4, M6 and M25 were regarded as poor, or very poor, value. I wonder whether the Government agree with that assessment. My main concern, however, is safety. Although I totally respect the huge improvements made by the technology—the electronic signs that can control traffic and close lanes—it has nevertheless been shown that casualties and serious injuries have gone up on some stretches of these smart motorways: the M3 and parts of M1, for example. Therefore, what further steps will the Government take to improve safety on these smart motorways?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
Just to broaden the issue, the majority of schemes are delivering economic benefits and have created additional lane capacity, which is beneficial now and into the future. I think it goes back to the perception issue. Smart motorways remain our safest roads, and we are monitoring the impact of investment in safety, including the 150 emergency areas we have added. I hope that answers some of the noble and right reverend Lord’s questions. Although carrying half the traffic, 327 more people were killed or seriously injured on A-roads compared with motorways. We take road safety seriously, and recently published our new road safety strategy, in which we outline the further measures we are intending to take.
Baroness Pidgeon (LD)
My Lords, it was clear from the start that so-called smart motorways were nothing of the sort, and they have led to a huge waste of public money and time, not only in building them but in having to retrospectively install more than 150 additional emergency areas. What is the total cost of these additional works, and will the Government assure the House that no further smart motorways will be installed?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I can absolutely assure the noble Baroness that no more smart motorways will be installed. It is difficult when you inherit a programme, and it has obviously been done with the best of intentions—to save lives, increase capacity, help people move around and support the economy. Obviously, the costs involved are relevant, but we need to make sure that we learn from the experience we have had thus far and deal with the absolutely disgraceful issue of the safety statistics on our roads.
Viscount Goschen (Con)
My Lords, can the noble Baroness comment on why, on the section of the M3 between junction 2 and junction 4a, the rate at which people have been killed or seriously injured has increased by around a third?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I cannot give the noble Viscount the specific details about that particular section of road, but I am very happy to ask for those statistics.
Lord Spellar (Lab)
My Lords, is not the reality that, when the initial M42 smart motorway programme was introduced, it showed very considerable reductions in congestion, great improvements in driving time reliability and a reduction in accidents? When the programme was rolled out further, under the next Government, a lot of cost-cutting took place, which did create some issues. However, is this not an extremely good way of getting better capacity, and particularly of dealing with peak-hour congestion?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
Obviously, dealing with capacity on the roads is one of the major contributors to the value-for-money exercises in terms of reducing congestion and enabling people to move around. We need to be careful in how we analyse the reports that have just come out. This is a long-term study, and we have to be mindful of the fact that we had just been through Covid as well. However, as my noble friend says, there are examples where improvements have been made, and we will continue to analyse all the schemes to make sure that we get the best value for money and the best reduction in congestion.
Lord Swire (Con)
My Lords, does the Minister share my concern about the plethora of broken tyres and rubbish on both smart motorways and normal motorways? Who has responsibility for keeping these motorways clear, and what do the Government intend to do about it as part of their road strategy?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The noble Lord touches on a very sensitive point. The ward in Leeds that I represented had the M1 going right through it, and all the litter on the side of the motorways was the responsibility of National Highways. It is a crucial factor, particularly where safety is involved. Given the new smart technology that so many people have in their cars, their ability to report things as soon as they see them should help with improving the performance.
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)
My Lords, we should all congratulate the emergency services that have to attend to accidents on our motorways. Sometimes motorways are closed for quite a long time as a result of accidents, but the emergency services behave admirably.
I want to ask the Minister a question that almost touches on the one we had before. With the increased use of electric vehicles, particularly those powered by lithium batteries, is she happy that our emergency services are sufficiently well educated in dealing with fires from lithium batteries, which I understand are extremely difficult to extinguish?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The raw facts of the cost of collisions and fatal and serious injuries in this country are staggering. It is estimated that over £3.1 billion was spent on medical and ambulance costs due to collisions on our roads last year alone. That is a crucial issue, and of course the lithium battery issue is an important one for our fire and emergency services. There is a lot of misinformation around this space, and it would be useful to have the latest figures updated to see how the fire and emergency departments are coping with that.
Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)
My Lords, given what my noble friend has just said about the cost of road accidents, particularly accidents on motorways, is she confident that the standards now expected of new drivers and the way in which they are examined ensure that people behave on motorways in ways that are likely to minimise the risk of accidents? It would probably be the observation of some of us that driving standards on motorways have deteriorated quite significantly over recent years, and in the end, it is mostly human beings that cause accidents.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
My noble friend raises an interesting point, but I have to go back to the fact that 793 people were killed or seriously injured on the motorways in 2023, compared with 1,120 on A-roads. Making sure that we consider carefully how we can improve driver safety, whether that means looking at young people or at older people—we know that eye tests are being proposed—is fundamental. I go back to the point that we are prepared to tolerate a level of death and injury on our roads that is, frankly, unacceptable. If such accidents and injuries happened on any other part of the transport network, there would be outrage. It is down to all of us to take very seriously, and not to be overcritical of, the attempts to change safety on our roads.
Lord Moylan (Con)
My Lords, when you come off the motorways, you quickly notice the rapidly deteriorating condition of many of our rural roads, which are becoming a threat and a safety risk in themselves. The Government have pledged to fix 1 million more potholes a year. Can the Minister update us on what progress is being made towards meeting that target?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The noble Lord will be aware that we do not hold that level of detail on potholes, but what I can say is that this Government have made the biggest commitment of financial support to local authorities, so they can assess priority need and get on and repair the roads in their areas, which will contribute to the safety and well-being of all road users.