MS LORNA PEARCE, DR JEREMY BROUGHTON, MR NEAL SKELTON AND DR CLAIRE CORBETT

15 MARCH 2006

  Q180  Chairman: How can we improve the effectiveness of enforcement?

  Ms Pearce: Some of the findings from the literature review did suggest the most effective types of policing. The most effective are stationary and highly visible policing; followed by stationary but not visible policing, and lastly by mobile and not visible policing.

  Q181  Chairman: Of those three categories, what is the deterrent effect, do you think? How could we make the deterrent effect greater?

  Ms Pearce: The greatest effect is if the policing is randomly allocated so that basically the drivers are unsure about where they are likely to be detected. It increases their perception of the likelihood of being caught, so a random allocation of the police.

  Q182  Chairman: Do you think publicity has got a role to play?

  Ms Pearce: Certainly because it is all about drivers' awareness of the likelihood of getting caught.

  Q183  Chairman: Do you mean publicity in the sense of where fixed sites are or on how the enforcement penalties work, in what sense?

  Ms Pearce: I think probably in both senses. Definitely in terms of what penalties are likely but also the fact that there is an increase in enforcement going on.

  Q184  Chairman: The number of operational traffic officers fell by 21% between 1999 and 2004. Does that have an impact on compliance with traffic law?

  Ms Pearce: It is not something that I would be able to comment on.

  Chairman: Does anyone else want to comment on that? Mr Leech?

  Q185  Mr Leech: Just on that point, you said that a lot of the time people's perception about officers being in the area will reduce the number of offences in that area. Do you not think that the reduction in officers over that period of time has meant that people have thought that there is less chance of them being caught and therefore they are more likely to break the law?

  Ms Pearce: It is difficult for us to comment on that relationship. All we can say is the findings from this review suggested that people's awareness of a police presence does have a net effect on violations and the level of accidents.

  Dr Broughton: Can I just make one point. From the Home Office statistics we can see that over the period that the number of traffic officers has fallen and the number of roadside breath tests have fallen, that has happened at a time when the number of people killed in drink-drive accidents is going up, and I think that is a possible area where we might see a relationship.

  Q186  Chairman: Do you think that the police have got the balance right between technology-led enforcement and officer-led enforcement?

  Dr Broughton: I think that is very difficult to say but in the case of drink-driving that does depend largely on a human officer clearly with the appropriate equipment, but if there are fewer traffic officers patrolling the streets then they will carry out fewer tests and the likelihood of identifying the drink-driver is correspondingly reduced.

  Q187  Chairman: You cannot isolate which bits of enforcement have had the most impact, whether it is the police enforcement on casualty reduction separately from improvements in road engineering?

  Dr Broughton: In the analysis we carried out a few years ago in preparation for the 2010 casualty reduction target, we did try to identify the separate elements of policy and their effectiveness, but beyond the three main areas of secondary safety of cars, drink-driving and road safety engineering, there is a large area where you cannot really identify the separate strands.

  Q188  Mr Martlew: Just on the drink-driving one, I am very interested that you appeared to imply that because the number of traffic police had gone down that is why the number of deaths from alcohol-related accidents has decreased. Is it not a fact that the country as a whole drinks a lot more than it used to?

  Dr Broughton: I would not want to draw that implication.

  Q189  Mr Martlew: I thought that was what you said really.

  Dr Broughton: The number of roadside breath tests carried out has fallen at a time when the number of traffic officers has fallen. What the linkage is between them—

  Q190  Mr Martlew: Is it not also the case that we are consuming more alcohol as a nation than we used to?

  Dr Broughton: Yes.

  Q191  Mr Martlew: So that could be a cause?

  Dr Broughton: Yes, but the number of people killed in drink-drive accidents is rising, whatever the precise mechanism.

  Mr Skelton: I think also, as you correctly identify, the 21% reduction in police and traffic officers has changed of late. There has been a reversal of that because I am aware that police forces have sought to address that.

  Q192  Chairman: It is a little bit of a late conversion, would you say Mr Skelton, because we have had occasion to question the police about this and it would rather seem that the numbers went down very consistently and have only very, very recently plateau-ed?

  Mr Skelton: I think, as has been said, it is part of the National Roads Policing Strategy there is a recognition of that and a reversal of that issue. I think you are correct.

  Q193  Chairman: You really feel there has been a noticeable, perhaps we should say, late conversion?

  Mr Skelton: A late conversion is fair.

  Q194  Mrs Ellman: Research from the Transport Research Laboratory shows how lives could be saved by reductions in speeding and by reductions in drinking and driving. Are those findings communicated to the police and do they then act on them?

  Dr Broughton: We carry out all our research for contractors such as the Department for Transport and they receive our findings and they have their own methods for communicating those findings.

  Q195  Mrs Ellman: Is that anything you would be aware of, how that is done?

  Mr Skelton: Just to follow that point, as a former member of the ACPO Roads Policing Operations Forum, I was aware of the statistics that would be transferred across from the Department for Transport through the Home Office to the appropriate body. There was a transfer through and a recognition of the figures involved.

  Q196  Mrs Ellman: The research has also found that stationary policing was more effective than mobile policing. Is that something that the police again have been informed about and acted on?

  Mr Skelton: I think again that in a separate area of research the high visibility marking on police vehicles is addressed primarily for the safety of the road officers, but there is a recognition that those markings do have a considerable impact on vehicle identification, and the markings have been replicated by the Highways Agency and also the VOSA, so there is a recognition that the high visibility marking does have a significant impact.

  Q197  Mrs Ellman: Do any of you have any precise knowledge of how the research from the Laboratory is actually used by the police, indeed if there is any direct connection?

  Ms Pearce: Not necessarily in terms of how it is used by the police, but I am certainly aware of communications between the people for whom we do our research, which in the case of this particular review was Transport for London, the police, and indeed we were involved in some discussions with the police about the further research that was required as a result of our findings because earlier studies did not quantify the relationship and what we felt we needed was further research that could quantify that. Certainly the police have been involved in those discussions.

  Q198  Chairman: Did anybody give you any money to follow up? I think we all accept what you are saying to us. You are giving us a factual basis, but the point Mrs Ellman is making is if we cannot tell who has picked the research up, we cannot tell how far they have gone and we cannot tell what else needs to be found out. Could you tell us whether anyone has asked for any further work?

  Ms Pearce: Yes, it is being discussed at the moment. It is a further research project that will have a controlled experiment in London to determine what the impact of a controlled increase in enforcement over a limited period of time would be.

  Chairman: Thank you.

  Q199  Mrs Ellman: Is there a case for recommending that the police do more enforcement of seat belt wearing, drink-driving and mobile phone use or are there any other specific areas in which you think the police should be more active?

  Dr Broughton: They are the three perhaps most clearly identifiable activities. Seat belt wearing is very effective in protecting people involved in accidents. We do have quite high levels of wearing them in this country, but clearly if we could raise them then that would produce casualty reduction benefits. That review did find studies where increased enforcement had led to higher wearing rates so that does seem to be effective, and drink-driving I am sure that is a very important area, as I said before.

  Mr Skelton: I think it is fair to say with the mobile phone in particular that when the legislation was first introduced there was a very high compliance because the penalties were recognised to be quite stringent. However, I think as time has passed the potential has slipped and has lapsed, and you are absolutely right there is a cause for a return to higher levels of enforcement on all three areas, but I choose that one in particular.