Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department’s timescale is for the installation on the M20 smart motorway of emergency refuge areas spaced at no more than 1 mile apart.

The Government has always been clear that the benefits of smart motorways will not be delivered at the expense of safety, with Highways England setting a strict objective that each scheme should be at least as safe as a traditional motorway.

Operational evidence shows no consistent correlation between the number of vehicles stopping in live lane on smart motorways and the spacing of emergency areas – with a broadly comparable live lane breakdown rate even where emergency areas were three times further apart.

However, to help drivers feel more confident they can find a place to stop in an emergency, Highways England are reducing the maximum spacing of emergency areas on future smart motorway schemes from about every mile and a half (about 90 seconds at 60mph) to around every mile (about every minute at 60mph).

Highways England is committed to improving its emergency areas on the M20 by installing improved signage and conspicuous orange surfacing.