PowerSwitch

Which probably in fact means cancelled. Good news IMHO, The idea was to increase capacity, which increases traffic, and carbon emissions.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65288852

Yes, good news. Motorways were designed with hard shoulders for a reason.

Perhaps the government had done a "Ford Pinto" cost-benefit analysis where the savings made by eliminating hard shoulders was more than the total cost of the lives lost by making this change.

The 'battle' is only half won......
They've only agreed not to build any new ones...., which is probably more to do with saving money, than saving lives....
Approx. 10% of the motorway network is already 'Smart' - no plans as yet to reinstate the lost hard shoulders....??