Motorways: Road Traffic Control
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve traffic management and congestion patterns on motorways.
Answered by Simon Lightwood
National Highways is responsible for operating motorways in England. Through the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), published in March 2026, the Government has set National Highways several targeted key performance indicators covering; average delay, incident clearance, network availability, and the timeliness and accuracy of roadworks information.
National Highways will need to undertake a range of actions to meet these targets.
RIS3 also contains a number of major enhancements and smaller schemes that are aimed at addressing some of the most congested sections on the network.
Investing in maintaining and renewing the network can cause some short-term delays due to roadworks. In such cases, National Highways will take steps to mitigate impacts where possible and to keep road users informed of roadwork timings and likely impacts.
National Highways’ RIS3 Delivery Plan will also include its customer and delay action plan, where it will set out further actions it plans to address delay and to improve the experience of road users.
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