Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department's timescale is for all lane running motorways to have emergency refuge areas spaced at no more than one mile apart.

To help drivers feel more confident they can find a place to stop in an emergency, Highways England have committed to reducing the maximum spacing of emergency areas which is currently about every mile and a half (about 90 seconds at 60mph), to around every mile (about every minute at 60mph). This will take place on schemes being constructed from 2020 onwards.