Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what her policy is on local highways authorities delivering carbon savings by turning off street lighting at night.

The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities, and it is for each local highway authority to decide the level of service they wish their street lighting network to deliver, and at what times. In reaching their decisions local authorities will take a number of factors into account, including the safety of all road users.

The Department for Transport encourages all local highway authorities to replace their street lighting with LED lighting, which is better for the environment than traditional street lighting.

The Department is also funding a £30 million research programme (“Live Labs 2”) to allow local authorities to pilot innovative ways of reducing the carbon impact of their highways operations. One of the projects is piloting new ways of decarbonising and rationalising street lighting, and testing lower carbon alternatives to it.