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Road Signs and Markings: Graffiti

Answer

The Department monitors National Highways’ performance through established sponsorship and reporting arrangements, including its approach to safety-critical asset defects on the strategic road network. Through these arrangements, the Department is confident that National Highways has appropriate processes in place to identify and address graffiti where it affects the legibility of important signage.

National Highways manages graffiti through its routine maintenance programme, in line with the Asset Delivery Asset Maintenance Requirements. Its traffic officers patrol the motorway network 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and identify and report urgent or safety-critical asset defects, including graffiti that obscures or renders road signage illegible.

National Highways also identifies graffiti through regular safety inspections, with frequencies determined on a risk basis. These are generally carried out every seven days on the motorway network and up to every 28 days on lower-volume trunk roads. Graffiti that is likely to cause offence, or which makes signage illegible, is treated as a priority and is often addressed within 24 hours.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

30262

Session

2026-27

Subjects

Graffiti Road signs and markings National Highways

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk