Road Safety

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call Anna Dixon, who will speak for up to 15 minutes.

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered road safety.

Road safety is a personal issue for me. My grandfather Herbert Bilsby moved to Ilkley in 1952 to take up a post as a geography teacher at Ilkley grammar school. Aged 62, he was looking forward to retirement: more time to enjoy his passion for hiking; more time to spend time with his grandchildren; and more time to visit family in Australia and Zambia. He never got that time.

On 6 December 1969, my grandfather was driving with my grandmother to deliver Christmas presents to her family at the family farm in Cumbria. Just north of Hellifield on the A65, he got stuck behind two lorries—a common experience even today. He saw an opportunity to overtake and pulled out. At that moment, the lorry pulled out, and my grandparents’ car was pushed off the road and into a stone gatepost. My grandfather was killed outright, and my grandmother suffered head injuries. That fatal collision shaped my family’s life. I never knew my grandfather. My grandmother was widowed and disabled. My dad moved jobs, and he and my mum moved to Ilkley where I was born and raised. My mum then continued to care for my grandmother for nearly 30 years.

It was a time before seatbelts were compulsory, before sections of the A65 were widened to create overtaking lanes, and before airbags. Today’s cars and roads are safer than they were in 1969 thanks to new laws, investment in our roads and the use of technology in the design of cars. Yet, four people still die on our roads every day and 76 more are involved in collisions that leave them with serious injuries. In my own constituency of Shipley, 180 people were injured in road collisions in 2024 and one person tragically died. Across the country, over 1,600 people were killed and nearly 28,000—yes, 28,000—people were seriously injured on our roads. Road collisions happen in a split second, yet their impact can be life-changing and felt for a lifetime. Parents lose their children; partners lose their soulmates; the unborn miss out on knowing their relatives—the human cost of road collisions is colossal.

But it does not have to be that way. A wealth of evidence shows us what the causes of death and injury are—we know what to do. Through the work of road safety groups, researchers and the police, we understand there are five causes of deadly crashes—the fatal five. They are speeding, antisocial driving, mobile phone use, alcohol and drug use, and not wearing a seatbelt. We must continue to tackle the fatal five if we are to reduce the death toll on our roads.

Ahead of the road safety strategy, I wrote to the Minister calling on the Government to include harsher penalties for speeding, to strengthen post-test requirements to protect newly qualified drivers, to lower the maximum legal drink-drive limit and to introduce points for passengers not wearing seatbelts. I therefore very much welcome the many measures in the road safety strategy, which the Government are now consulting on. Those measures include a minimum learning period for learner drivers; lowering the drink-drive limit; reviewing penalties for drink and drug driving offences, including—importantly —bringing in new powers to suspend licences for those suspected of committing serious driving offences; introducing penalty points for not wearing a seatbelt; and taking tougher action on those who fail to stop and report collisions, those who drive unlicensed or without insurance, and those with no MOT.

The strategy also addresses the growing problem of illegal number plates—so-called ghost number plates—which my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) has campaigned for extensively. She was sorry to not be here today for the debate, but I am sure she would join me in congratulating the Government on taking action on this issue. The Government’s strategy is the first of its kind in a decade, and it sets out a plan to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on roads in Great Britain by 65% by 2035.

In West Yorkshire, a more ambitious goal has been set as part of “Vision Zero”, striving for zero deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 2040. It was launched in 2023 by our Labour West Yorkshire mayor, Tracy Brabin. “Vision Zero” brings together the combined authority, local authorities, emergency services, National Highways, victim support services and road safety campaigners, and it is producing results. In just the first year of the strategy, 7,500 dangerous drivers were brought to justice, almost 40,000 fixed penalty notices for traffic offences were issued and 13,000 children across West Yorkshire were part of an innovative educational project.

I pay particular tribute to Alison Lowe, the deputy mayor for policing and crime in West Yorkshire. Under her guidance, the combined authority and West Yorkshire police have taken a proactive approach to improving road safety. Alison, whose own sister was killed by a speeding driver, has listened to the community and effectively targeted police resources. West Yorkshire has introduced community concern sites. These are locations flagged by local authorities based on data and community feedback that receive greater police attention. This innovative scheme has led to 467 new enforcement locations, and over 46,000 speed offences were detected in less than a year.

Another successful example from West Yorkshire is Op Snap, which allows the public to submit dashcam footage of driving offences. There were almost 9,000 submissions just in the second half of last year, and 70% resulted in further action being taken. I hope the Minister can set out how good practice such as that in West Yorkshire can be supported and spread to other parts of the country.

This is only the beginning; far more needs to be done to end deaths on our roads. In 2024, young drivers aged 17 to 24 were involved in 11 of the 40 fatal collisions in West Yorkshire—around 20%, despite making up a much smaller share of road users. I would like to see stronger measures to protect newly qualified drivers. I was interested to see that the Northern Ireland Infrastructure Minister recently announced plans to introduce graduated driver licensing. GDL has already been adopted by other countries with success. Victoria, Australia introduced it in 2007 and, by 2013, saw fatal collisions reduced by 30%. I welcome the Government’s proposed mandated learning period for new drivers, but why not be more ambitious? There is good evidence from other countries. Why should young drivers in Northern Ireland get protections that young drivers in the rest of the UK will not? I urge the Minister to remain open to look at other effective measures to support young and novice drivers, such as limits on the number of passengers and restrictions on night-time driving, which we know from evidence have the biggest impact on reducing death and serious injury.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. Members will know that two debates are scheduled this afternoon, which will necessitate a very tight time limit of three minutes from the get-go.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. After the next speaker, I am going to have to drop the time limit to two minutes, because there is a very important debate on Gaza that I would like to start by 3.30 pm.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

That brings us to the Front-Bench contributions. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.