Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of existing legal provisions relating to road traffic collisions involving horses; and whether she has considered introducing legislation to recognise horses and their riders as vulnerable road users for the purposes of criminal liability.

The Department already recognises that horse riders are vulnerable road users with safety needs. Accordingly, the Highway Code covers horse riders and the need for drivers to exercise special care in relation to them.

There are a range of offences which create criminal liability for bad driving and the harm that results. Those offences include dangerous or careless driving. The offences apply where a pedestrian or another road user, including horse riders are involved. The independent Sentencing Council provides guidelines to the courts for sentencing driving offences which also list as an aggravating factor, that is a factor meriting an increased sentence, the fact that the “victim was a vulnerable road user, including pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, motorcyclists etc.”