On 1 April 1999, the House of Commons Environment, Transport Regional Affairs Committee decided to inquire into the standards and training of young drivers in the UK. Its terms of reference were to consider: (1) the current levels of road accidents involving young and newly qualified drivers, and the trends in these accident rates; (2) the causes of such accidents; (3) the numbers and costs of convictions of such drivers; (4) the impact of the work of the Driving Standards Agency, with special reference to the observed decline in the number of people taking the recently introduced two-part driving test; and (5) what can be done to ensure the improvement of standards. The Committee took evidence on three occasions, and received written memoranda from interested parties. This document contains the Committee's report, followed by these minutes of spoken and written evidence. Topics covered by the report include: reasons for lower safety standards, the current regime and its impact on safety, the driving test, the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995, Pass Plus and other post-driving-test training schemes, access to the driving test, changing attitudes among drivers, and the training and testing regime. 19 principal conclusions and recommendations are made.
Samenvatting