By Mike Rawson (Retired Metropolitan Traffic Sergeant)
During her evidence to the Transport Committee’s Roll out & Safety of Smart Motorways inquiry on June 30th, Baroness Vere, the Minister for Roads, Buses & Places, informed MPs the estimated cost of restoring hard shoulders to All Lane Running Motorways would be £2.85bn.
This is a very precise figure and could only be arrived at following detailed costings obtained from work carried out by Highways England / National Highways on behalf of the Department for Transport.
Baroness Vere was not asked to supply any details nor did she offer to provide any documents to support her highly controversial claim.
Statements to committees must be open and honest, not only to comply with the Ministerial Code of Conduct, but because they may influence the conclusions and subsequent reports of committees.
Select Committee Reports are sometimes acted upon by government and it is essential they are factual and accurate to avoid policy mistakes which may have serious implications for the public, as with All Lane Running Smart Motorways.
Another statement made by the minister gave rise to further concern when she claimed restoring hard shoulders to Smart Motorways would result in an additional twenty five deaths.
The minister cannot possibly know this nor can she predict the number of fatalities during the next few months.
Although unelected, the Baroness holds ministerial office and is subject to the requirement to enter details of possible conflicts of interest in The Register of Members Interests.
Highways England / National Highways is answerable to the minister and must presumably seek her authority when awarding multi-million contracts to road construction companies.
Baroness Vere is married to the Conservative Party’s Chief Fundraiser who receives large donations from these companies.
It is not suggested the Baroness has at any time acted in an inappropriate manner but her failure to include these details in the Register is of relevant interest because Section 12 of the Code of Conduct states, ‘The test of relevant interest is whether the interest might be thought by a reasonable member of the public to influence the way in which a Member of The House of Lords discharges his or her parliamentary duties’.
A formal complaint about the minister’s behaviour was made to the newly appointed Standards Commissioner of The House of Lords, Mr Martin Jelley, QPM, recently retired as Chief Constable of Wiltshire Constabulary.
Mr Jelley apparently carried out what he describes as a preliminary enquiry and quickly dismissed the complaint through lack of evidence.
The Leader of The House of Lords has been asked to comment upon Mr Jelley’s decision to dismiss the complaint without apparently even listening to the evidence session or examining the Register of Members Interests.
Mike Rawson August 22nd 2021
How anyone can say that smart motorways are safer than having a hard shoulder needs to take their head from out of the sand , when it boils down to it ,it’s common sense but I’m guessing some folk had left the building .Utter madness to say smart motorways are safe ,NEVER ………
Hi totally agree that smart motorways are very dangerous and more life’s will be lost it my opinion it’s all down down to money and bonus changing hands has they tried to brush deaths on smart motorways under the table or play them down we need a web site with true upto the min figures of crash’s deaths on theses dangerous roads . I avoid them like the plague.