Mr. Michael Rowland:

The gender elements was mentioned. This is a predominantly a male problem. The people being killed on our roads are predominantly male. I am not sure what has changed, but we have seen slippage in attitudes and behaviour. One in particular that I would call out is the attitude towards drinking and driving. That has become more socially acceptable. There has been a 10% decrease in the percentage of drivers who say that most of their acquaintances think driving under the influence of alcohol is unacceptable. That was 82% in 2015. In more recent years it is 72%, a 10% drop.

We did a self-report survey last year asking drivers about their drug use. Some 14% of drivers reported driving within one hour of taking drugs other than prescribed or over the counter medication. We have mentioned distracted driving and mobile phone use in particular. In our observational surveys we go out on the streets to see how many people are using their phones. Some 5% of car drivers use their phones, 11% of light goods vehicles drivers do and 9% of HGV drivers do. When we ask people to self report, to tell us exactly what is happening, we are aware that 35% of car drivers check their phone notifications, 28% of them talk on a hand-held phone, and that is equally as dangerous as hands-free. Regarding writing messages and emails, the figure is 27%. We can see that there are major issues with mobile phones and what people are doing. We have huge compliance in terms of seatbelt wearing but of the people killed on our roads, 29% of drivers and 23% of passengers were not wearing their seatbelts. They are some of the major issues for us where we have seen slippage.