Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of smart motorways; and how many penalty notices have been issued for non-compliance with smart motorway restrictions on each motorway.

Smart motorways are an important part of the modernisation of England’s motorways. The Government’s policy is to implement smart motorways on the busiest sections of motorway, as they provide a way to increase capacity and improve performance without the need to widen the road.

Smart motorways have reduced congestion and improved journey time reliability, by making the hard shoulder available as a traffic lane and using variable speed limits to smooth traffic flow. Each scheme has to meet a strict safety objective, which is to be at least as safe as a traditional motorway.

An assessment of the first two smart motorway ‘all lane running’ schemes, on the M25, shows that they are delivering the intended benefits. This assessment is detailed in the ‘M25 J5-7 Monitoring Third Year Report’ and the ‘M25 J23-27 Monitoring Third Year Report’, both published on 16 July 2018 by Highways England.

The issuing of penalty notices is a matter for the police force in each area, since Highways England is not an enforcement body.