Smart motorways may have become “more deadly” after highways authorities left more than 150 speed cameras faulty for almost a year, it has emerged.
Ministers have acknowledged that cameras used to enforce speed limits across 440 miles of major roads in England have been out of service since December last year.
The affected stretch accounts for roughly one in every 10 miles of England’s Strategic Road Network, which covers motorways and major A-roads. It also represents more than a third of the 400 cameras installed across the motorway network.
Officials said the “anomaly” affects extensive sections of smart motorways, where reliable speed-limit enforcement is considered especially important because variable limits are used to reduce collisions, injuries and deaths.
The Labour government commissioned an independent investigation after problems with 154 cameras were first identified in December 2025.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander judged the breakdown serious enough to order the review the following month.
The inquiry was expected to deliver its findings within 18 weeks, but its report has still not been released.
Ministers have admitted that 154 speed cameras enforcing limits across 440 miles of major roads in England, including smart motorways, have been out of action since December last year
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander considered the failure serious enough to launch a review in January, but its findings have yet to be published
Tory shadow transport minister Greg Smith said the failure had “potentially made smart motorways even more deadly”
Opponents have urged ministers to “get a grip” of the problem, arguing that urgent action is needed if the government is serious about improving road safety and preventing deaths and injuries.
Greg Smith, the Conservative shadow transport minister, said: “Labour’s smart motorways are not looking very smart when as many as 440 miles are without working cameras.
“Ministers must accept responsibility, be open about this failure and ensure the system is operating as it should.
“There is no doubt this could have made smart motorways even more dangerous. Labour needs to get a grip.”
Edmund King, president of the AA, said: “The review was commissioned in January, but 10 months on we are still waiting for its conclusions.
“Drivers need complete confidence that motorway technology is precise, dependable and thoroughly tested—particularly on smart motorways, which depend on technology and changing speed limits.
“It is deeply concerning that the technical fix is apparently still being tested almost a year after the fault was discovered.
“We need clear action to establish what went wrong and what protections will be put in place to stop a similar failure happening again.”
RAC road safety expert Rod Dennis said faulty cameras on smart motorways do more than allow speeding motorists to escape prosecution and put lives at risk. They also weaken public confidence in a road system that many drivers already view with serious concern.
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“The safety of everyone travelling on smart motorways relies on motorists obeying the variable speed limits,” he said.
The shocking failure was laid bare in an answer to a written Parliamentary Question this week, in which transport minister Justin Madders was asked how many speed cameras had been fixed since the problem first emerged last December.
President of the AA, Edmund King, said the disclosure was ‘particularly concerning’ as ‘the technical solution is apparently still undergoing testing almost a year after the problem was identified’
Thousands of drivers were wrongly issued speeding tickets before the faults were publicly declared last December
Confirming it still hadn’t been fixed, he said: ‘The anomaly impacts 154 cameras on 10% (440 miles) of the Strategic Road Network (4,500 miles)…A solution to the technical anomaly has been developed and is undergoing thorough testing.’
He added that police were enforcing ‘speed offences on the network via a range of tactics’.
However, critics point out that teams of officers cannot police the affected road stretches with mobile cameras to the same extent as 154 fixed cameras rolling 24/7.
When National Highways first announced the problem last December, it said it was down to how variable speed cameras were interacting with speed signs on A roads and motorways.
But it didn’t reveal that the affected M-roads were smart motorways.
A software synchronization delay meant there was a delay of around ten seconds between speed cameras and variable speed signs on overhead gantries, meaning some drivers were incorrectly identified as speeding after the limit had changed.
It meant that on a road where the speed limit increases, a driver may see a sign saying 60mph, but the camera recording it was still working on the basis of a previous 40mph speed limit.
As a result, thousands of drivers were being wrongly issued speeding tickets. But nearly a year on, the problem hasn’t been fixed and the cameras remain out of action.
Variable speed limits are used on smart motorways to slow down traffic during busy times to prevent collisions.
Enforcement is particularly important for preventing collisions on the roads because some smart motorways have their hard shoulder permanently removed to create an extra lane, meaning drivers who break down can be smashed into from behind.
The Daily Mail has campaigned for better smart motorway safety for several years, highlighting several arguably preventable deaths after motorists became stranded on the roads in live lanes of traffic.
A spokesman for National Highways, the quango responsible for running England’s SRN, said: ‘Speeding offences continue to be detected and prosecuted.
‘A range of enforcement measures are in place to help keep road users safe.
‘A fix for the impacted cameras is going through rigorous testing.’
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