Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing heating apparatus in certain road surfaces similar to that installed on the M4 at Chiswick in the 1960s to improve safety in winter and reduce the need for gritting; and if he will make a statement.

The then Highways Agency assessed the potential merits of introducing heating apparatus in road surfaces in a trial from 2004 to 2007, using heat stored during the summer to heat the road surface in winter.

This helped prevent ice forming by warming the road to keep it above zero degrees centigrade, but was found not to be effective below minus four degrees centigrade. Conventional salt treatments proved to be safer and more cost effective.