Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using drones to detect defects in roads.

The Government is committed to exploring all technology, including the use of drones, to identify road defects and improve road maintenance.

The Infrastructure Inspection Pathfinder project, carried out by the Connected Places Catapult (previously Transport Systems Catapult) under the Government Drone Pathfinder Programme, aims at accelerating the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to enable UK businesses to access wider inspection and surveying capabilities of this smart technology.