Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with EU counterparts on (a) the Interbus Agreement, (b) the 90 day rule and (c) UK coach tour drivers travel in Europe.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Interbus Agreement was a central part of discussions between the UK and EU during the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) negotiations for international coach and bus services.
The UK acceded to the Interbus Agreement as an independent member on 1 January 2021, which allows occasional passenger transport services (e.g. coach tours) to continue between the UK and other members of the Interbus Agreement, including the EU. In addition, the ‘transport of passengers’ title in the TCA ensures that authorised regular (scheduled) and special regular services to and from EU countries can continue.
This was a temporary measure that ceases apply to the UK in April 2022 as the Interbus Agreement has now been extended via a Protocol to include regular and special regular services. The EU is aware that the UK will sign the Protocol and have legislation in place in time for when this change comes into force.
On the 90 day rule and UK coach drivers, visa and work permit arrangements for the purpose of undertaking paid work is a matter for individual EU Member States. Since these rules are set by individual Member States, it is not a matter that the Department has discussed recently with EU officials.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether contracts have been issued for smart motorway projects on the (a) M62, (b) M40 and (c) M42 as of 24 November 2021; and what his planned timetable is for commencing that work on those motorways.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We are currently considering the Transport Committee’s recommendations contained in its report, Rollout and safety of smart motorways, and their practical applications, and will be providing a formal response in due course.
Contracts have been previously issued for smart motorways projects on the (a) M62 Junctions 20 to 25 and the M40/M42 Interchange, which is treated as one scheme.
Early design and enabling works contracts were awarded in early 2019 for the M62 Junctions 20 to 25 and M40/M42 Interchange, with work commencing late 2019. This included detailed surveys, hard shoulder strengthening and limited site clearance. Full detailed design was awarded on 11 June 2020 followed by full construction works on 23 October 2020 through a package contract to the Smart Motorways Alliance.
Main construction works for the M62 Junctions 20 to 25 is scheduled for January 2023. Main construction works for the M40/42 Interchange commenced in October 2021 with limited vegetation clearance and ecological mitigation for communications cable diversions.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will provide a list of incidents in which gantry notification systems were out of operation on the M1 between junctions 32 and 35a in the last three months.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Highways England currently holds data to reflect the percentage of time that roadside technology is operable rather than the number of occasions that a device is offline.
Highways England assesses that, using the time period of January 1st, 2021 through to March 31st 2021, the latest period for which data is available, that all of the technology within the M1 Junctions 28 to 35a scheme boundary was operable for 97.11% of the time.
The boundaries of M1 Junctions 28 to 35a scheme are as stated within Statutory Instrument 2015 No. 1701.
There are maintenance standards associated with the service restoration time for the various devices associated with roadside technology (including those associated with smart motorways) that work to ensure the operability is maintained. There are factors such as accessing the roadside in a safe manner that could affect restoration times.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on how many occasions gantry notification systems on smart motorways were inoperable as a result of technical failure in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Highways England currently holds data to reflect the percentage of time that roadside technology is operable rather than the number of occasions that a device is offline.
Highways England assesses that, using the time period of April 1st, 2020 through to March 31st, 2021, that all of the relevant technology for Smart Motorways are operable for 99.38% of the time nationally, whilst, this operable figure for the Yorkshire North East region is 99.41% of the time.
There are maintenance standards to do with the service restoration time for the various devices associated with roadside technology (including those associated with smart motorways) that work to ensure the operability is maintained. There are factors such as accessing the roadside in a safe manner, that could impact restoration times.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents involving (a) serious injury and (b) death occurred between Junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 in (i) each year since March 2017 and (ii) each of the three years before March 2017.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The number of fatal and serious reported road accidents between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 from 2014 to 2019 can be found in the table below.
Reported road accidents with a personal injury between junctions 32 and 35A on the M1¹ by severity, 2014 - 2019 | ||
Calendar year | Fatal accidents | Serious accidents |
2014 | 0 | 2 |
2015 | 1 | 2 |
2016 | 2 | 6 |
2017 | 1 | 4 |
2018 | 0 | 6 |
2019 | 1 | 5 |
Source: DfT, STATS19 | ||
1. does not include off ramps at junction 35a | ||
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents in which a vehicle was stranded in a live lane have taken place between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 in the three years prior to March 2017.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The table below records all breakdown incidents that have been recorded in a live lane between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1, in both directions in the three years prior to March 2017.
Month/Year | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
January | 11 | 6 | 65 | 42 |
February | 5 | 5 | 75 | 58 |
March | 10 | 4 | 80 | 51 |
April | 20 | 3 | 75 | 53 |
May | 8 | 15 | 79 | 63 |
June | 12 | 19 | 72 | 77 |
July | 15 | 23 | 62 | 67 |
August | 19 | 26 | 64 | 64 |
September | 13 | 27 | 59 | 49 |
October | 11 | 39 | 52 | 66 |
November | 17 | 55 | 45 | 71 |
December | 26 | 46 | 57 | 68 |
There has been significant interest in the number of live lane breakdowns on motorways. It is important to note that live lane breakdown data is not a reliable safety indicator to correlate with serious or fatal casualties.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many serious collisions involving vehicles being stranded in a live lane have taken place from (a) junction 32 to (b) junction 35A of the M1 since March 2017.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Between Junctions 32 and 35a of the M1, from March 2017 and up to 31 December 2019 (the latest period for which validated collision data is available), there was 1 collision which involved stationary[1] vehicles.
M1 J32-35a | 2017* | 2018 | 2019 |
Fatal and Serious collisions with stationary vehicles in a live lane | 0 | 0 | 1** |
* Assumed SM ALR opening is March 2017 ** 1 collision led to 2 casualties
[1] In the absence of a Stats19 collision data field that identifies whether a vehicle was broken down or stranded, the field ‘parked’ has been used as a proxy. This will indicate that the collision involved a vehicle that was stationary without offering commentary on the reasons for it being so.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents in which a vehicle was stranded in a live lane have taken place between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 since March 2017.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, published in March 2020 considered the number of breakdown incidents by Strategic Road Network (SRN) road type. At a national level, conventional motorways had on an average annual basis 129,991 breakdowns (over 2017-2018), while All Lane Running (ALR) motorways had a total of 22,963 breakdowns over the same period.
The table below records all breakdown incidents that have been recorded in a live lane between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1, in both directions.
Month/Year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
January |
| 70 | 59 | 75 | 81 |
February |
| 76 | 59 | 67 |
|
March | 51 | 102 | 69 | 40 |
|
April | 53 | 69 | 59 | 29 |
|
May | 63 | 88 | 81 | 32 |
|
June | 77 | 80 | 57 | 61 |
|
July | 67 | 82 | 83 | 80 |
|
August | 64 | 79 | 68 | 80 |
|
September | 49 | 74 | 63 | 66 |
|
October | 66 | 80 | 79 | 58 |
|
November | 71 | 93 | 75 | 62 |
|
December | 68 | 84 | 71 | 60 |
|
There has been significant interest in the number of live lane breakdowns on motorways. It is important to note that live lane breakdown data is not a reliable safety indicator to correlate with serious or fatal casualties.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many serious collisions occurred involving a vehicle in the hard shoulder between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 in the three years prior to March 2017.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
There were no serious or fatal reported road accidents involving a vehicle on, entering, or leaving a lay-by or hard shoulder between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 between March 2014 and February 2017.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many additional smart motorway emergency refuges have (a) been constructed and (b) entered the design phase on the M1 since the publication of his Department's report entitled Smart Motorway Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, published on 12 March 2020.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Since March 2020, six emergency areas have been constructed as part of the upgrade project between J13 and J16, which is currently in construction. These emergency areas will come into use when the first section of this project (Junction 13 to Newport Pagnell services) opens to traffic in Spring 2022. There are currently no other All Lane Running (ALR) upgrade schemes on other stretches of the M1 that have entered into design since March 2020.
The Government’s Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan asked Highways England to accelerate its plans and install stopped vehicle detection technology (SVD) on ALR motorways within the next 36 months. The roll out of SVD is planned across the network by March 2023. Page 29 of Highways England’s Delivery Plan 2020-25 sets out an indicative delivery programme over the years 2020-23 for each section of ALR motorway.