Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to delay any removal of ancient woodlands until a further assessment has been made of the viability of HS2.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
There are no plans to delay or pause any HS2 works, including woodland removal, provided they can proceed in line with guidance from Public Health England.
The Oakervee Review recently conducted an assessment of the project and concluded that it should continue. At a time when the construction sector faces uncertainty during the coronavirus outbreak, the Government’s subsequent decision to authorise ‘Notice to Proceed’ for Phase One has provided certainty for construction companies, communities along the route, and the wider UK supply chain supporting this transformational project, which is crucial to the Government’s long-term plan to level up the country.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 24 February (HL1571) and prior to their decision to conduct “an evidence stocktake to gather the facts about the safety of smart motorways”, (1) how many miles of smart motorways have been created to date, (2) what has been the total cost of that work, and (3) how many miles of such motorways had been planned.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The SRN has been expanding and evolving since the 1960’s, and in 2018 was 4,513 miles in length. The last 25 years has also seen conversion of parts of the motorway network to become smart motorways:
Controlled Motorway (CM) - in 1995 the first mandatory variable speed limits used on the English motorway network were introduced on the M25 J10-J15. By the end of 2018, controlled motorways covered 137 miles of the network (around 3% of the SRN) and carried 7 billion vehicle miles of traffic (around 8% of total SRN traffic)
Dynamic Hard Shoulder Running (DHS) - in 2006 the first hard shoulder to be opened to traffic was put into operation on the M42 J3a-7. This pilot scheme was originally known as active traffic management. By the end of 2018, Dynamic Hard Shoulder Running motorways covered 66 miles of the network (around 1% of the SRN) and carried 3 billion vehicle miles of traffic (around 3% of total SRN traffic)
All Lane Running (ALR) - in 2014 the first ALR schemes went into operation on the M25 J5-7 and J23-27. By the end of 2018, ALR motorways covered 123 miles of the network (around 3% of the SRN) and carried 5 billion vehicle miles of traffic (around 5% of total SRN traffic).
The smart motorway evidence stocktake report and action plan was published on 12 March 2020 and is available on gov.uk.
I will write to you to answer your questions 2 and 3.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 24 February (HL1572) and prior to their decision to conduct “an evidence stocktake to gather the facts about the safety of smart motorways”, what assessment they had made of the safety of smart motorways, or similar schemes, operating in other countries before introducing them in England.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Highways Agency looked at experience in the Netherlands before introducing the first smart motorway scheme with hard shoulder running - the M42 ‘Active Traffic Management’ pilot project.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 24 February (HL1567), what data they currently hold on the number of people who have been killed on smart motorways.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
England’s roads are amongst the safest in the world. Of the 1,522 fatalities on our roads in 2018, 86 were on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) motorway network, of which 19 were on the ‘smart motorway’ sections of the network. Across 2015-2018 there were on average 1,507 fatalities per year. Of these, 87 were on the SRN motorway network including 11 on the 'smart motorway' sections.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 24 February (HL1568), why they will not name the minister or official who made the decision to build smart motorways in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The term ‘Smart Motorways’ describes a set of motorway designs, comprising Controlled Motorways, Dynamic Hard Shoulder Running and All Lane Running. Since 1995, these have been progressively introduced to the strategic road network under the tenure of a number of different ministers and officials.