Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on which motorways at which locations automatic number plate recognition cameras are in use; and what offences such cameras are being used to detect.

Highways England have installed and operate automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras across 500 sites covering the majority of the motorway and trunk road network. These are used for data gathering and provision of information, such as journey times and are not used for enforcement purposes.

In addition, there are a small number of ANPR cameras at the Dartford Crossing to support Dartford free flow charging and 22 sites at various locations operated by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to detect offences, including unlicensed operators, untested vehicles and at some locations overloaded vehicles.

A private sector company, Trafficmaster, operates their own ANPR cameras to capture traffic flow information to provide traffic services for travellers.