Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the number of people killed on Smart Motorways as a result of their being no hard shoulder in each year since its introduction.

The latest published data shows that, compared to other roads in England, motorways are comparatively the safest roads to travel on. Increasing capacity on our safest roads makes drivers safer overall, and reduces the risk of deaths or serious injury. This is because the extra capacity draws traffic from less safe roads where there are tragically more deaths and injuries.