Explanatory note

These Regulations introduce variable speed limits to the M6 Motorway from junctions 4 to 5 and on associated slip roads and linking carriageways.

The Regulations also modify the Motorways Traffic (England and Wales) Regulations (“the 1982 Regulations”) to provide for an ‘actively managed hard shoulder’, which is a hard shoulder that in certain circumstances may be driven on. This is introduced to the northbound section of the M6 motorway from junction 4 to 5 and southbound from junction 5 to 4A (“relevant roads”).

Regulation 3 inserts a new regulation 5A into the 1982 Regulations and provides that the hard shoulder of a relevant road may be used as a carriageway where a speed limit sign is displayed above the hard shoulder.

Regulation 3 also introduces into the 1982 Regulations the concept of the ‘emergency refuge area’, which, where a hard shoulder is actively managed, has the same function as a hard shoulder.

Regulation 4 provides for variable speed limits to have effect on the roads specified in Schedule 2. Where variable speed limit signs are in operation a vehicle may not be driven at a speed above the maximum indicated by each speed limit sign passed by the vehicle until it passes a sign indicating that the national speed limit applies or the vehicle leaves the roads covered by the regulation. Where a speed limit changes less than 10 seconds before a vehicle passes the sign and had indicated a higher speed limit, the regulation allows a driver to proceed at a speed up to the maximum applicable before the change. Where the speed limit sign indicates a speed limit when it is passed by a vehicle but less than 10 seconds previously it was either giving no indication of a speed limit or that the national speed limit applied, the sign is to be taken as giving no indication of a speed limit to the vehicle passing it.

A copy of the impact assessment prepared in respect of these Regulations can be obtained from the ATM and ITS Solutions Team, C5, 5 Broadway, Broad Street, Birmingham, B15 1BL. A copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament and is also annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the OPSI website.