Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of regulations governing working hours of professional drivers on (a) public safety and (b) the safety and wellbeing of drivers.

No formal assessment has been made of the effect of the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 (“the 2005 Regulations”), which limit working time to 48 hours per week on average, on public safety and driver welfare.

However, statistics (from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings) show that heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers worked on average 48 hours per week in 2017, down from an average of 50 in 2004. Bus and coach drivers worked an average of 40.2 hours per week in 2017.

Although accident reduction can be attributed to a number of factors, injury accidents involving HGVs and buses and coaches, whose drivers are mostly in scope of the 2005 Regulations, have been on a downward trend. In 2004 there were 11,542 accidents involving HGVs and 10,389 involving buses and coaches. In comparison, in 2016 there were 5,461 accidents involving HGVs and 4,915 involving buses and coaches.