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20 mph Default Speed Limit

Is this devolved to Wales?

Where is this happening?

What's happening?

Why is this happening?

Who has been affected?

What's happening?

Why is this happening?

Who has been affected?

Police-recorded road accident casualties by road speed limit (source)

Severity of accidents on roads by speed limit (source)

£ ~34 million Cost at introduction

Who has raised this at the Senedd?

Mark Hooper MS

Deputy Minister for Transport

Sarah Cooper-Lesadd MS

Backbencher

Dr Gwyn Williams MS

Backbencher

Helen Jenner MS

Leader of the Opposition

Jason O'Connell MS

Shadow Economy Minister

Llŷr Powell MS

Reform UK Whip

David Mills MS

Backbencher

Carmelo Colasanto MS

Chair: Local Government & Housing

Vikki Howells MS

Senedd Commissioner

Ken Skates MS

Labour Group Leader

Janet Finch-Saunders MS

Backbencher

Paul Rock MS

Backbencher

Mark Hooper MS

Deputy Minister for Transport

Sarah Cooper-Lesadd MS

Backbencher

Dr Gwyn Williams MS

Backbencher

Helen Jenner MS

Leader of the Opposition

Jason O'Connell MS

Shadow Economy Minister

Llŷr Powell MS

Reform UK Whip

David Mills MS

Backbencher

Carmelo Colasanto MS

Chair: Local Government & Housing

Vikki Howells MS

Senedd Commissioner

Ken Skates MS

Labour Group Leader

Janet Finch-Saunders MS

Backbencher

Paul Rock MS

Backbencher

What are the party positions on this?

Plaid Cymru backbenchers support the existing policy and the ability for councils to review speed limits. They also believe there is an economic argument in favour of lower speed limits due to the cost of road accidents.

There is a view that increased journey times put visitors off from coming to Wales. The evidence I've seen proves contrary to my point. A Visit Wales survey in 2023 asked about 2,000 people why they chose not to visit Wales. Thirteen distinct reasons were identified. The speed limit was listed as a minor factor by 3 per cent of the respondents. Around 73 per cent were likely planning to return at some point in the future. Clearly, 20 mph isn't limiting tourism to Wales.

Can you put a price on life? Well, yes, you can. That's the basis of healthcare economics as well in medicine, when you put a price on lives saved versus cost to the economy....Do they balance up? There's not enough data to come to a conclusion yet. But...there are: pounds for everybody killed, measured in the millions, mainly because of the way the road is closed, traffic is diverted and such; hundreds of thousands of pounds for somebody seriously injured; and some £20,000 for somebody slightly injured.

Reform UK opposed the introduction of the new speed limit, believing it to be unpopular with the public. They also argue the local government review hasn’t led to enough changes to speed limits.

We are not saying that every road should revert back to 30 mph. There are roads outside schools, hospitals and through residential communities where 20 mph will quite properly be the safest and most appropriate limit. What we reject is the default. The starting point should be the road itself, its location, its character, its collision history, the number of pedestrians using it, whether there is a school or hospital nearby, whether it is a residential street or an important route connecting rural communities. That is what an evidence-led system should look like, a commonsense system.

Collisions on 20 mph and 30 mph roads are dipping slightly and every one of us should welcome that. But they were already falling for around 10 years….The post-policy period is short and the Government's evaluation isn't even finished. So, I would say: publish the evaluation in full. Show us which roads actually produced a benefit, because if the gains have actually come from streets where 20 mph was always the default, then that's wrong, isn't it? That's an argument for targeting, not a national default.

Now, an opinion poll by the BBC in March showed that 54 per cent of the people of Wales still oppose this policy, and I heard on the Labour benches quite a strange supporting of their policy there. Quite strange that, because all I've heard Ken Skates speak about in the last couple of weeks was how true devolution needs to come, that local authorities should be making decisions, but what you were supporting in this Chamber today was a top-down approach that didn't work. It shows that Labour want to talk the talk, but they won't walk the walk.

In Monmouthshire, residents identified 143 roads that they believed should return to 30 mph. Four were reassessed. How many changed? None. In Denbighshire, more than 300 submissions were received covering 202 roads. How many changed? None. Cardiff reviewed 192 roads, following 933 requests, and only four routes have returned to 30 mph….An empty reset, once again ignoring cries from the Welsh public, tinkering around the edges, as is becoming common with this Government, afraid to tackle the big issues head on.

Labour believes the evidence on road safety supports their decision to introduce the policy in the previous Senedd term.

Let's just take a second to remind ourselves of the evidence base. It's nearly a decade now since the OECD highlighted research that consistently showed that lower speeds reduce deaths and injuries. There's more time to react and collisions will lead to reduced levels of harm. Similarly, a survey of the international evidence base shows that, on average, a person is around five times more likely to be killed when hit by a vehicle travelling at around 30 mph than they are from a vehicle travelling around 20 mph.

The Conservatives have long opposed the policy. They believe the measures has been applied to too many roads and the money spent on it could’ve been put to better use elsewhere.

Let me be clear, this is not an argument against 20 mph limits outside schools, near playgrounds, around hospitals or on highly populated residential streets, where evidence does show a genuine safety need. It is an argument against a blunt, one-size-fits-all default that treats very different roads as though they were the same. The Welsh Conservatives are clear: restore the 30 mph default while retaining 20 mph limits where they protect pedestrians and vulnerable road users.

There's a thing called an opportunity cost: when you spend money on one thing, it means you're not spending money on another. If you accept that there are economic costs of the 20 mph default speed limit to the Welsh economy, and if you accept that the Welsh Government has spent £30 million-odd implementing the measure, and many millions more since reviewing the measure, how many lives could have been saved had that money been spent on our emergency departments, on beds in our hospitals, or on other matters like that?

The Greens back the policy, believing that it protects all vulnerable road users, not just schoolchildren.

They're quite happy to have that 20 mph speed limit outside their child's school, quite keen to have one outside the care home where their parents live, enthusiastic to have it on the road they cross every day. But what they're forgetting is that vulnerable people do not only exist within a few metres of a school gate or near a hospital entrance. Children need to walk to school from their homes, elderly people have to cross the road to get to the shops, disabled people need the freedom and confidence to travel around their communities. They need to navigate busy roads and residential streets every day. This is why the 20 mph policy was introduced.

Jane Dodds hasn’t said anything on this specifically, but supported the policy in the previous term.

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Who is responsible?

Mark Hooper MS

Deputy Minister for Transport

What have ministers said?

Let's give you the actual data: in 2025, there were 1,469 collisions on roads with 20 mph and 30 mph speed limits combined, which is 2 per cent higher than in 2024, when there were 1,445. But it is the second lowest annual number ever recorded in Wales. So, this proves that, when we've reduced speed limits, it's actually reduced collisions.

Road casualty numbers fluctuate from year to year. It has always been acknowledged that this will take several years of monitoring and evaluation before firm conclusions can be drawn. That is the responsible position, but, equally, it is not accurate to suggest that the evidence demonstrates the policy is, and I use quotes, 'clearly not working'. The published data simply does not support that conclusion.

What's being done about this?

What do the Welsh Government want to do?

Does this need a new law or regulations?

How long will this take?

What do the Welsh Government want to do?

Does this need a new law or regulations?

How long will this take?

What have the Senedd's Committees said?

Nothing has been discussed yet.

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Relevant Votes

Date	Motion Number	Subject	Binding Vote?	Votes For	Votes Against	Absent/No Vote	Outcome
30/09/26	NMD9304	As amended	No	52	36	6	AGREED
30/09/26	NMD9304	Amendment – Accidents have reduced on 20 & 30 mph roads	No	52	36	6	AGREED
30/09/26	NMD9304	Scrap the default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas	No	37	51	6	REJECTED