Young Drivers (Safety)

Robert Goodwill Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Robert Goodwill)]

I congratulate my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Stephen Phillips) on securing this debate on the safety of young drivers. I am always glad to have the opportunity to discuss an important subject such as improving the safety of our young drivers. I was extremely sorry to hear of the tragic death last year of his constituent, Emily Challen, and I am saddened by the continuing toll of fatal accidents on our roads. Every one of them is a tragedy.

There are very few of us who have not been touched by such a tragedy. In my locality, there was a recent road collision involving an 18-year-old friend of my son. His car crashed into a tree and, sadly, he was killed. That shocked the whole year group at Malton school. We cannot be complacent about our road safety record, and we must continue to seek improvements and identify the changes that can make our roads safer for all. This is why it is vital that the Government strike the right balance, so that young drivers remain safe on our roads, but, at the same time, their freedom is not restricted. We feel that it is important that all views are considered and the right decisions are made. We will issue a paper when we have considered the matter further.

Britain’s roads are among the safest in the world. We are proud of that record, but we know that there is more we can do to make our roads safer. The latest figures for 2012 show another drop in the number of people killed on our roads. In fact, it was the lowest figure since national records began in 1926. It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of road safety professionals that we are able to make consistent progress year on year. However, I suspect that, like me, all hon. Members feel a mixture of emotions whenever such statistics are published, because every single one of them is preventable.

[Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Stephen Phillips) on his powerful speech. Does the Minister agree that it is imperative, not least for their own self-interest, that insurance companies are involved in the process of guiding behaviour, given that most young drivers will be driving legally and that fixing insurance premiums to guide behaviour is an important part of changing behaviour in the long run?

[Mr Goodwill]

Indeed; in fact, many young people cannot drive because they cannot afford the insurance. However, I will come to some exciting developments in the field of telematics, which insurance companies are engaged with.

It is knowing that deaths are preventable that gives us such a strong incentive to carry on trying to improve what we do. For me, as road safety Minister, that means providing support to road safety professionals such as the police, the fire service and many other road safety organisations. That support may come through funding, policy or raising awareness of important issues.

As we have heard, young people are involved in about a fifth of all road crashes, but only about 5% of all the miles driven in Britain each year are driven by them. That worries us, and we know it worries parents and young people too. We know that young men cause more crashes than young women and that more collisions occur at night, when young people have their friends in the car or are on roads in the countryside. We also know that drivers of all ages are most at risk of causing a collision in the first six months after they take their practical test.

We are also conscious that this unfortunate safety record gives our young people some of the highest insurance premiums. As budgets in many households are tight, we want to do what we can to bring those insurance costs down. Estimates provided by the insurance industry suggest that drivers could expect discounts on a telematics policy of between 25% to 33%, with the highest being 50%, and that some young drivers have saved over £1,000 by using such policies. Such policies are cheaper because the claims history of the drivers using them is so much better. It is also worth mentioning that some studies suggest that parental viewing of feedback from telematics devices can improve young people’s driving further.

For those who are not conversant with the concept of telematics, I would liken it to having the electronic equivalent of a glass of water on the dashboard. Every time the water spills because of severe braking or cornering, the policy cost is loaded up. Indeed, there are currently 296,000 live telematics policies from a number of companies in this country. Only recently I met the insurance industry to discuss how we might consider commissioning research into how telematics can change the behaviour and attitudes of learner drivers. Like many things in life, the more someone practises, the better they become. We know that more practice before taking a practical test improves hazard perception and understanding of risk, and results in a lower collision rate.

The driving test has been steadily refined since it was introduced in the 1930s. We have recently made changes to the theory test, so that it is harder to learn the answers by rote, and we have introduced an element of independent driving—driving without instruction or direction—during the test to help to prepare for the real-life driving environment. The Government recognise that there are many voices calling for a graduated driving licence to be considered or introduced in Britain. We recognise that there is a significant body of evidence to suggest that a GDL regime would have a beneficial effect on British road safety. However, against that we need to weigh carefully the implications for the freedom of our young people, as any such change to the law would result in some difficult cases—for instance, where a young person is stranded, unable to drive home legally—or would limit the ability of young people to offer each other lifts and thereby reduce transport costs.

Caution also needs to be exercised before making quick comparisons between Britain and other countries with GDL regimes. British roads are among the safest in the world and Britain’s road safety record is considerably better than all the countries that have already introduced GDLs, with the exception of Sweden, whose record is similar to ours.

We are in the process of undertaking some face-to-face research with parents and young people to get a better understanding of the issues from their perspective. As I hope the House can appreciate, this is a difficult topic, as I have mentioned, and it is important that we get this right. Once we are confident that we have struck the right balance between driver safety and restricting the freedom of our young people, we will come forward with our proposals. In the meantime, there are other things we can look to improve.

We want to improve the quality and accessibility of resources to support road safety. There is a range of resources to support the process involved in gaining a licence, but relatively little information targeted at parents, at those who accompany learner drivers or even at young people themselves on the risks faced by inexperienced drivers after they pass their driving test. There are also initiatives like Bikeability, which operates in the cycling sector, that could be used at an early age to instil road safety behaviours.

There are technologies that could potentially reduce the crash and casualty risk among novice drivers, and we want to provide incentives for their take-up. Because young and inexperienced drivers’ decisions about the vehicles that they buy are influenced by their overall budgets and by the cost of insurance, new vehicles, which are safer but more expensive, are less likely to be driven by the drivers who are most at risk and who would benefit most from the technology. I expect that that will change over time as today’s new cars become tomorrow’s cheap bangers.

We recognise that if we tighten the processes of learning to drive and licensing, an unintended consequence may be that more young people choose to ride motorbikes or mopeds. We also know that powered two-wheelers are involved in a significant number of crashes, many more than cars. We therefore think it important to consider ways of improving the process of compulsory basic training so that that, too, is as safe as we can make it.

We are worried about the safety of our young people. It is simply not right that a young woman in Britain today is most likely to be killed while being driven by her boyfriend. The safety record of our young and inexperienced drivers has long been a topic of discussion among the road safety and insurance communities. I hope that the examples that I have given illustrate our determination to work with my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham to improve road safety throughout our country. In the months ahead, our objective will be to ensure that we contribute to the reduction in the number of accidents and fatalities on our roads.

Question put and agreed to.