This Government is investing a record £8.4 billion renewing the Strategic Road Network over the next 5 years through the third Road Investment Strategy so that the network can continue to be relied upon by road users across the country. The funding will enable National Highways to resurface around a quarter of the entire network.

The Government is also investing a record £7.3 billion in local highway maintenance over the next four years, providing local authorities with long-term funding certainty to tackle potholes and improve road condition.

Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA) is eligible to receive over £368 million across this period. It is for GLCCA to decide how much of this funding should be spent across their constituent local highway authorities (LHAs), including within Lincolnshire County Council, who are the LHA covering the South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

In addition to record funding, the Government has also introduced a strengthened regime of transparency reporting, incentive funding requirements and annually updated ratings. LHAs have recently published their 2026 highways maintenance transparency reports, enabling residents to see how funding is being used and how their roads are being managed.

The case for investment in Lincolnshire’s strategic road network was considered carefully as part of the process of developing the third Road Investment Strategy, covering the period 2026-2031, which was published in March 2026. The evidence underpinning this work was gathered as part of National Highways’s South Pennines and North and East Midlands Route Strategies. Route Strategies allow National Highways to consider the current performance and future needs of the strategic road network and to inform investment planning. They are revised to inform each five-year Road Investment Strategy period.

On 7 January 2026 we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all. This aims to improve road safety at a national level, with benefits seen across the country, including South Holland and the Deepings.

South Holland and the Deepings sits within the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority, which will receive a consolidated Mayoral Transport Fund of £606,913,184 from 2026/2027 to 2029/2030. This funding can be used to improve local transport outcomes such as road safety, active travel and highways maintenance.

The Road Safety Strategy sets an ambitious target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65%, and 70% for children under 16, by 2035. These targets and delivery of the Strategy will be supported and monitored by a new Road Safety Board, which I chair.

Road safety is a shared responsibility, and this strategy reflects that. It considers action needed by government, local authorities, industry, emergency services and communities to tackle the causes of collisions and save lives, making our roads safer for everyone.

The Department for Transport is aware of growing concerns around rising fuel and transport costs caused by the conflict in the Middle East. The department fully recognises the need to maintain the continuity of critical supply chains and is actively monitoring any potential impacts. On 20 May, the government announced an extension of the 5p cut in fuel duty to the end of the year and a 12-month vehicle excise duty (VED) holiday for hauliers, to help with rising prices.

The department will continue to work with industry to understand the pressures and options to mitigate any risks, and is meeting regularly with haulier representative organisations, to understand the challenges hauliers in Lincolnshire and elsewhere are facing due to rising costs and varied ability to pass these on to consumers, particularly small and medium sized enterpris

Under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, local highway authorities themselves are responsible for maintaining their networks and for the delivery of maintenance works. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances.

The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment into local highways maintenance over the next four years. By confirming funding allocations for the next four-year period, authorities have certainty to plan ahead and shift from short-term fixes to proactive, preventative maintenance.

Lincolnshire County Council sits within the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA). GLCCA are eligible to receiver over £368 million in highways maintenance funding from the Government over the next four years.

The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment into local highways maintenance over the next four years. By confirming funding allocations for the next four-year period, authorities have certainty to plan ahead and shift from short-term fixes to proactive, preventative maintenance.

Lincolnshire County Council is the local highway authority for South Holland and The Deepings and sits within the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA). GLCCA are eligible to receive over £368 million in highways maintenance funding over the next four years.

To further support improvement and ensure best use of public funding, the Department published a new traffic light rating system for all local highway authorities in England on 11 January which rates authorities red, amber or green based on: the condition of their roads, how much they spend to maintain their roads and whether they do so using best practice. This system allows the Government to target support to places that need extra help and red-rated authorities have been offered dedicated support to bring them in line with best practice.

Lincolnshire County Council received an overall amber rating, with individual scorecards showing amber for condition, amber for spend and amber for best practice.

Lincolnshire County Council is the local highway authority for South Holland and The Deepings, and it sits within the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA). GLCCA are eligible to receive £368,646,000 in the next four years and received £73,478,000 million in highways maintenance funding in 2025/26.

The Department also introduced a new traffic light rating system for all local highway authorities in England on 11 January. All authorities are assessed annually and receive a red, amber or green rating based on the condition of their roads, how much they spend to maintain their roads, and whether they do so use best practice. This system is designed to highlight where authorities need support, as well as to encourage continuous improvement.

Lincolnshire County Council received an overall amber rating, with individual scorecards showing amber for condition, amber for spend and amber for best practice.

National support for the road haulage industry includes joint investment with industry in lorry parking and driver welfare facilities of up to £35.7m, including Lincolnshire. This is in addition to up to £30 million joint investment by National Highways and industry to improve lorry parking on the strategic road network. Further National Highways funding is planned for the third road investment strategy (RIS3) as part of the Customer and Community Designated Funds, subject to confirmation of National Highways’ RIS3 settlement.

Support for the sector’s decarbonisation includes the Plug-in Truck Grant which provides a contribution to the upfront purchase costs of zero emission vehicles, the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme, which is now closed to new applicants, but is providing up to £200m to fund hundreds of ZE HGVs and their associated recharging and refuelling sites and the Depot Charging Scheme which closes on the 28 November 2025, and will support HGV, van and coach fleet operators with the cost of installing charging infrastructure at depot sites.

Qualifying Operators in Lincolnshire have had the opportunity to apply for national schemes.

The Department’s reported road collision statistics do not identify the cause of collisions. However, reporting police officers can assign up to 6 road safety factors which they believe may have contributed to the collision occurring.

There were no fatalities between 2015 and 2023 (the latest year for which figures are available) in collisions assigned the road safety factor “Poor or defective road surface or deposits on road” in South Holland and the Deepings.

Fatalities for Lincolnshire are shown in the table.

All fatalities were drivers or riders.

The number of collisions, involving at least one seriously injured casualty, which were assigned road safety factor “poor or defective road surface or deposits on road” between 2015 and 2023 are shown in the table.

The Department’s reported road collision statistics do not identify the cause of collisions. However, reporting police officers can assign up to 6 road safety factors which they believe may have contributed to the collision occurring.

There were no fatalities between 2015 and 2023 (the latest year for which figures are available) in collisions assigned the road safety factor “Poor or defective road surface or deposits on road” in South Holland and the Deepings.

Fatalities for Lincolnshire are shown in the table.

All fatalities were drivers or riders.

The number of collisions, involving at least one seriously injured casualty, which were assigned road safety factor “poor or defective road surface or deposits on road” between 2015 and 2023 are shown in the table.

Local highway authorities must publish transparency reports about their maintenance activities to unlock their full share of the Government’s £500m uplift for local highways maintenance this year.

While data is not required to be provided at a constituency level, Lincolnshire County Council the highway authority responsible for the local road network in this constituency, have estimated that they have filled 72,421 potholes during the financial year of 2024-25. Reports are available on local highway authorities’ websites.

The Government is committed to tackling the poor state of our roads. In 2025-26, we provided an additional £16 million to invest a total of £60 million in improving the condition of Lincolnshire County Council’s local highways. The Spending Review announced that the Government will provide £24 billion of capital funding between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to maintain and improve roads across the country. This funding increase will significantly improve the long-term condition of England’s road network. Future funding allocations for local authorities and their highways, including Lincolnshire, will be announced in due course.

The data requested is not held centrally.

There are no plans to amend section 170 of the Road Traffic Act to make it mandatory for drivers to report road collisions involving cats.

Although there is no obligation to report all collisions with animals on roads, Rule 286 of The Highway Code advises drivers to report any collisions involving an animal to the police, and if possible, they should make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals and advise them of the situation.

Since June 2024, all cats in England over 20 weeks of age must be microchipped and registered on a compliant database, unless exempt or free-living. This will make it easier for National Highways and local authorities to reunite cats with their keepers.

The Government allocates Integrated Transport Block (ITB) funding to local authorities such as Lincolnshire County Council, which is used for a variety of local transport initiatives such as road safety improvements. ITB allocations for 2025/26 for Lincolnshire County Council and other authorities will be announced shortly. This will enable councils to decide how best to use the available funding; the Department does not get involved in local authority decision making of this sort.

On local highway maintenance funding, all local authority allocations for highway maintenance block capital funding in 2025/26, including for Lincolnshire County Council, were announced by the Secretary of State for Transport on 20 December 2024 and are published on Gov.uk. Lincolnshire County Council will be receiving an uplift of over £16.2 million compared to the current financial year, taking its total funding for the year to over £60 million if they meet the incentive element requirements, due to be published shortly.

The Department authorised the use of the small wild animal sign in December 2023, giving local authorities permission to place the sign without reference to the Department. Prior to this none of these signs had been authorised. The Department does not hold information on how many signs are installed by local authorities.

There are no plans to encourage local authorities to install these signs, it is entirely a matter for local authorities to decide upon.

The Department authorised the use of the small wild animal sign in December 2023, giving local authorities permission to place the sign without reference to the Department. Prior to this none of these signs had been authorised. The Department does not hold information on how many signs are installed by local authorities.

There are no plans to encourage local authorities to install these signs, it is entirely a matter for local authorities to decide upon.

Data on road injury collisions are reported by police using the STATS19 system. The number of personal injury road collisions reported to police in each of the areas requested in 2023 are shown in the table below.

The Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local highway network.

At Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced an extra £500 million for local highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year, an increase of nearly 50% compared to the current financial year - exceeding this Government’s manifesto commitment on repairing local roads.

The Government will confirm 2025/26 funding allocations to English local highway authorities, including Lincolnshire County Council, in due course.

This Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing all parts of the local highway network.

The Department recognises the benefits of providing all local highway authorities with long-term funding certainty, and will consider this carefully.