Newly Qualified Young Drivers

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

The Government would completely agree that it is quite wrong that people should need to use what were referred to as “dodgy websites”—which is obviously a technical term. The Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency has closed down several hundred of those websites by enforcing more strictly the rules by which people can obtain driving tests. The correct way to obtain a driving test is, first, for a learner driver to prepare so that the date that they select is a date when they can pass and, secondly, to do it through the DVSA website or through the helpline.

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)]

My Lords, I draw attention to my interests. One of the issues for young drivers is the enormous cost of insurance, and the insurance industry would like to help address that. Therefore, a probation period or maybe zero alcohol for the first five years or until a certain age might be a way to help insurance companies to produce better rates for young drivers, for whom a car can be essential for work. Would the Minister agree to look at a range of possibilities, so that we can keep young people on the road more safely?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

Of course, we all agree that insurance is necessary and that its costs have been rising. Indeed, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport has instituted a review, with the aid of the industry, about the cost of insurance. There are a number of ideas to help young drivers obtain insurance, some of which need great thought to make sure that they are enforceable. The primary way that they can get insurance and remain safe is to practise for the test properly, to take the test, to be successful and then to drive with the same safety that we want of everybody on the roads.