Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much her Department has spent on (a) social media promotions, (b) influencer marketing and (c) online advertising in the last 12 months.

Over the last 12 months, the Department for Transport has spent £830,731.27 on social media advertising and £1,488,420.01 on online advertising through the THINK! Road safety campaign.

This has been done to reach and influence the behaviours of our target audience of 17-24 males, who are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the road than drivers aged 25 and over. Campaigns have tackled priority issues such as drink driving and speeding to reduce casualties and fatalities. All budgets have been scrutinised to ensure value for money, with behaviour change communications often a cost-effective way to support policy interventions, as well as being a core part of the safe-systems approach to road safety.

As part of the THINK! campaign to reduce speeding among young men, the department ran a media partnership with youth platform LadBible which involved working with two content creators as part of a wider partnership. However, we are unable to provide a cost breakdown on influencers specifically due to commercial sensitivities which could prejudice commercial interests. All spend in these areas are subject to the standard value for money assessments.