Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of road accidents in England in the last 10 years where potholes and poor-quality road surfaces were a cause.

Statistics on reported road injury collisions in Great Britain are published based on data reported by police via the data collection known as STATS19.

Within STATS19, reporting police officers can assign up to 6 factors which they believe may have contributed to the collision, including ‘poor or defective road surface’. Contributory factors are assigned based on the opinions of the reporting officer at the scene or within a short time of the collision, rather than a detailed investigation.

The number of collisions in each of the last 10 years with the factor ‘poor or defective road surface’ assigned is published in table RAS0701 on gov.uk and reproduced below: