Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of (a) car and (b) HGV drivers involved in an accident with a motorcyclist were charged with careless driving in each year from 2014 to 2017.

Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 creates the offence of driving a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or other public place without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or public place. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of defendants charged with, or prosecuted for these offences. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.

As Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 is a specified offence large numbers of careless driving offences are charged and prosecuted by the police with no involvement from the CPS. The CPS only become involved if the defendant pleads not guilty to the offence after which, CPS prosecutors take responsibility for reviewing the case and preparing the trial. Figures on the number of people prosecuted and the outcome of the prosecution of careless or inconsiderate driving offences may be obtained from the official statistics held by the Ministry of Justice.

The CPS does however maintain records of the number of offences in which a CPS prosecution commenced, including offences of careless or inconsiderate driving. The table below shows the number of these offences during each year between 2014 and 2017.

Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System

It should be noted that the figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It is may be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence.