To ask the Minister for Infrastructure what work her Department is doing to examine the potential benefit of smart highways for road safety on the roads network.

My Department operates part-time hard shoulder bus lanes on both the M1 and M2 motorways which provide a significant benefit to public transport users. There is also a section of Controlled Motorway on the M1 from Junction 3 (Black’s Road) to Clifton Street on the A12 West Link where variable speed limits are applied.

These schemes can be considered as types of SMART motorway and have operated successfully for a number of years without safety concerns.

My Department is aware of the safety concerns associated with All Lane Running and Dynamic Hard Shoulder types of SMART motorways. My officials have carried out a preliminary assessment of the suitability of All Lane Running schemes on our M1 and M2 motorways and I can confirm there are no plans to progress these at this time. In the meantime my officials will continue to closely monitor the debate on SMART Motorway safety.