Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of automated vehicles on road safety.

With 88% of road traffic collisions currently involving human error as a contributory factor, self-driving vehicles offer an opportunity to make our roads safer for the people who rely on them.

Government will publish a Statement of Safety Principles – subject to consultation and approval by Parliament – against which the safety of these vehicles will be assessed.

The Automated Vehicles Act 2024 commits us to framing the statement of safety principle with a view to securing that:

• authorised automated vehicles will achieve a level of safety equivalent to, or higher than, that of careful and competent human drivers. This is the same high standard to which we hold humans, and a higher standard than that of the average driver on UK roads – which is dragged down by those who break the law, or who are distracted, tired, or intoxicated; and

• road safety in Great Britain will be better because of authorised automated vehicles on roads than it would otherwise be.

Those companies that take responsibility for self-driving vehicles will be subject to a rigorous new regulatory regime, which will operate alongside an independent Incident Investigation function.

Together, this will build-in the same culture of learning and continuous improvement that has helped make our aviation, nuclear, and pharmaceutical industries some of the safest in the world.

In June 2025, we published a call for evidence on the statement of safety principles. Responses are now being analysed, and we intend to publish a further consultation on the principles in 2026.