Vehicle Headlight Glare Standards

Debate between Peter Lamb and Lauren Edwards

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Peter Lamb (Crawley) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the potential merits of a new standard for vehicle headlight glare.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. I am grateful for the opportunity to present this motion today; it is the first time that I have been successful in an application for a Westminster Hall debate, and I feel that I have been incredibly lucky with the coverage that it has received so far in the news. But I suppose that I should not be surprised. This issue has been raised with me by many constituents, and polling indicates that 80% of all drivers are concerned about headlight glare. I am sure that most Members have at one time or another struggled to see the road because of the glare of oncoming headlights—I certainly have.

No one should deny the valuable role that headlights play in enabling people to drive safely. They enable drivers to see potential hazards, and other people to notice vehicles in motion. It is for that reason that we encourage cyclists to ensure that their bikes are properly illuminated at night—the conversation about their lighting, and particularly the flashing lightbulbs that they often have, can wait for another day. However, in recent years the glare from headlights has begun to tip over from enhancing road safety to compromising it. On average each year, police are called to 280 collisions and six fatal collisions where headlight glare is cited as having played a role in causing the accident.

Several factors have a role to play in driving the increase in headlight glare. Poor alignment of headlights means that often car headlights are angled too high up in the road, and consequently the light enters into cabins. There is increased adoption of SUV-style cars, which sit higher in the road, so again the light is more likely to enter a car’s cabin and impact drivers.

However, the most significant change has been the replacement of traditional halogen lightbulbs with light-emitting diodes. LEDs are a significant improvement on halogen bulbs; they are far more energy-efficient, last far longer and have the ability to be brighter and better directed than traditional lightbulbs. Unfortunately, although car companies feel the advantages of the increased brightness of LEDs—which, due to emitting large volumes of blue light, unlike halogen lightbulbs, take far longer for the eye to recover from—they do not appear to have considered the impacts on other road users. It is hard to say whether that is by accident or design. Brighter headlights may well be attractive to those purchasing a car; they can be more aesthetically pleasing, and drivers benefit from increased visibility, but that all comes at the cost of other road users.

The tension between the conflicting interests of those living in this country sits at the heart of our politics. It is our job as representatives to decide where that appropriate balance sits—curtailing the freedoms of some to protect the freedoms of others—and there will always be winners and losers. Fortunately for the Government, on this issue the balance seems clear. When four out of five drivers are telling us they are concerned about headlight glare, we know that the balance of freedoms in this country rests clearly on one side. We cannot have a road network where one in 20 people have stopped driving completely and a further 22% would rather not drive at night at all if they a choice.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

From my hon. Friend’s research, how concerned is he about the role that increasing glare from headlights could be playing in increasing social isolation? A lot of my older constituents say they are quite frightened about going out at night, particularly in winter as the nights are drawing in, which leaves them feeling more isolated.

[Peter Lamb]

Although the researcher involved did not look into particular age groups, I think we all know that on balance, it is often older citizens who are far more inclined to feel the issue of headlights and problems with driving in general. When looking at the numbers, which show the scale of people who are simply staying at home because they no longer feel safe in the road, we realise that something clearly has to be done. The overwhelming majority of those who say that they are no longer driving at night, or would not drive if they had the choice, cite headlight glare as the primary reason.