Appendix 1: Correspondence: Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2021
Letter from Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, Chair of the Secondary Legislation Committee, to Baroness Vere of Norbiton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Transport
The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee gave preliminary consideration to this instrument at its meeting yesterday. Before concluding our scrutiny, we would be grateful if you could provide further information about the potential road safety consequences of the proposed change.
We understand the need to increase the number of lorry drivers. We are aware however there are about 1,000 serious accidents a year from towing incidents. We therefore asked your department about how much this figure might increase if the requirement for a towing licence for car drivers (BE licence) is removed. We were ·told that the information would be in the Impact Assessment (IA) but that the IA would not be available until the end of November, after the legislation comes into effect.
We acknowledge that the department is responding to a crisis. But, as I have no doubt you will understand, Parliament cannot perform its scrutiny of this instrument effectively without information about the safety risks involved. It is unacceptable that Parliament should be expected to do so. Please could you therefore provide, if not the full IA, at least the information about the costs and benefits of the policy that was made available to you when signing the instrument.
We would also be grateful for further explanation about the practicalities of the change proposed — for example, whether the test centre examiners who will be freed from overseeing BE licence tests will all be qualified to conduct Category C tests.
We would not wish to delay our final scrutiny unduly. We would therefore welcome a response by I0:30 on Monday 18 October, so that we may consider it at our next meeting.
13 October 2021
Letter from Baroness Vere of Norbiton to Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts
Thank you for your letter of 13 October.
My officials have already explained that the Impact Assessment (IA) is in progress but needs to go through a number of stages, including clearance from the Regulatory Policy Committee, before it can be published. However, we have undertaken further analysis on the impact of road safety from the proposed measure to remove the car trailer test which I am happy to share with you to aid the scrutiny process.
There is not currently any statistical evidence to suggest that competence and skills will worsen if drivers do not take a statutory test to tow a trailer. Road safety has significantly improved over recent decades for several reasons, and it is therefore difficult to identify how much the car trailer test (Category B+E) has made a difference since it was introduced in 1997 or that there is a causal link between road safety and the test.
The attached annex provides the number of car and trailer accidents for 2019. The figures show that the number of trailer accidents is low, with the proportion of accidents of cars/vans towing a trailer compared to all car/van accidents, as roughly 0.45% in 2019.
Over recent decades, there has been a decline in the number of personal injury accidents for cars/vans towing trailers (with current 2019 accident figures of 474 being around a third of the total in 1997, 1442 accidents). This is likely due to several factors including vehicle safety improvements, road infrastructure improvements, other changes to licencing laws, as well as changes to the theory and practical test (for example the introduction of the hazard perception test). We also know that the number of personal injury accidents involving at least one car or van has also declined over this period (whereby total accidents have halved from 222,181 in 1997 down to 108,348 in 2019).
In respect of the demographics of the drivers towing trailers, our statistics show that individuals generally only start getting their car and trailer licence (Category B+E licences) from their late 30s and 40s onwards, indicating that people tend to start towing within the later age groups. This is shown in Table 1 in the annex with licence holders for the 32-41 age group being nearly five times higher than the 17-31 age group, and later age groups not being included due to retained entitlement to not have to take a trailer test, often referred to as “grandfather” rights, for pre-1997 licence holders.
Analysis of the proportion of licence holders relative to accidents involving a vehicle towing a trailer by age reveals injury accidents are higher within lower age groups relative to the number of licences, which mirrors the collision statistics for drivers more generally. This is shown in the figure 2 in the annex with age groups from 17 to 31 being responsible for 64% of accidents within the age group 17 to 41, whereby they only represent 20% of the licence holders.
We do not know at this stage whether there will be a change in the trend in the age distribution of drivers towing trailers if all current and future car licence holders become automatically eligible to tow trailers from the date they pass their test as more younger drivers decide to make use of the entitlement. We will monitor this closely.
We are taking a number of measures that we would expect to have a positive impact on road safety. The current theory test already includes questions on towing skills and more questions will be added. And we will work with the driving instructor profession to ensure that learner drivers are prepared and understand the rationale underpinning these. In addition, the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is exploring industry-led accredited training that could offer a standardised non-statutory testing approach. The DVSA has received strong support for an accreditation training scheme which is also generating considerable interest from companies who tow as part of their business and we are progressing discussions urgently. Our focus for continued communication and campaigning will cover all drivers who wish to tow a trailer. We know through DVSA’s stakeholder engagement, that there is a strong indication from professional business users that they will continue to undergo Category B+E training to ensure staff are safe and competent and that their corporate responsibilities are fulfilled. When we consulted, it was reassuring that many responded that drivers would want to continue to take some form of training (with mostly positive answers (56%), rather than negative (32%) or not knowing (13%).
We have committed in the regulations to a post-implementation review after three years and then after five years. During this period, we will monitor and gather data to understand the impact and will take action if needed in the light of that review. I understand the tragic consequences to victims’ families from
death or injury and it is vital that standards which support road safety remain high. For the purposes of this analysis reference to “accident” is not intended to offend those who dislike this phrase but refers to the data we collect involving death or injury and not all collisions.
Introducing this legislation will help to increase the number of available HGV driving tests, with the aim to increase the number of qualified HGV drivers in the UK and thereby reduce the current shortfall in HGV drivers. Category B+E tests have traditionally been carried out by vocational examiners who also conduct HGV tests. Stopping Category B+E testing as a temporary measure has already increased the number of HGV tests available by around 550 per week, which is the full-time equivalent of 33 HGV examiners. The remaining examiners who were qualified to carry out Category B+E tests but not HGV tests have been deployed to carry out car tests.
Annex A – 2019 STATS19 Statistics on B+E accidents
The figures from STATS19 show that in 2019 there were 865 reported personal injury accidents involving any vehicle towing a single or double trailer or caravan. When police officers attend the scene of a collision, they can select up to six contributory factors (CFs) that they believe contributed to the collision for each vehicle or casualty involved. Officers do not need to carry out a full investigation of the incident before allocating CFs - they usually use professional judgement about what they can see at the scene. Of the 865 reports of any vehicle and trailer accidents in 2019, 623 had at least one contributory factor (CF) assigned. The CFs assigned suggest that 315 of these accidents involved driver error (36% of total accidents) with a further breakdown as follows:
- Any of the factors considered driver/rider error or reaction: 252 accidents (6 fatal, 69 serious, 177 slight)
- Poor turn or manoeuvre: 42 accidents (1 fatal, 9 serious, 32 slight)
- Speed (exceeding speed limit or travelling too fast for conditions): 21 accidents (1 fatal, 4 serious, 16 slight)
Additionally, in 378 accidents at least one CF was assigned to the towing vehicle
- In 42 accidents the towing vehicle had a vehicle defect assigned (mostly ‘overloaded or poorly loaded vehicle or trailer’ – 28 cases)
- In 17 accidents, the towing vehicle had one of the four defects which could have been noticed with mandatory testing, as follows:
- Tyres illegal, defective or under-inflated – 9 accidents
- Defective lights or indicators - 5
- Defective brakes - 3
- Defective steering or suspension – 1
Table 1: Top 10 serious or dangerous faults causing failure of the B+E test (where there can be more than one fault per test)
Manoeuvre |
Number of Serious or Dangerous Faults 15/16–19/20 |
Percentage of total Serious or Dangerous Faults 15/16–19/20 |
|
|
1 |
Reverse left - Control |
10,073 |
16% |
|
2 |
Uncouple / recouple |
9,721 |
15% |
|
3 |
Junctions - observation |
5,325 |
8% |
|
4 |
Mirrors - change direction |
3,724 |
5% |
|
5 |
Move off - safely |
3,668 |
5% |
|
6 |
Use of speed |
3,169 |
5% |
|
7 |
Response to signs - traffic lights |
3,164 |
5% |
|
8 |
Junctions - turning right |
2,609 |
4% |
|
9 |
Response to signs - road markings |
2,520 |
4% |
|
10 |
Response to signs - traffic signs |
2,103 |
3% |
Figure 1: B+E licence holders by age group - later age groups removed due to grandfather rights
Figure 2: Proportion of B+E licence holders and accidents involving vehicles towing trailers by age
18 October 2021