Roads: Safety
Eric Ollerenshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how his Department is co-operating with the Department for Education to promote road safety in schools. [147521]
Stephen Hammond: The THINK! road safety campaign provides a range of resources to enable teachers to deliver road safety education to children and teenagers in schools. These include lesson plans, printed materials and interactive games.
To improve on this, a school engagement strategy is under development and the THINK! team will be consulting with the Department for Education to ensure a co-ordinated, cost-effective and impactful strategy is delivered.
In the first phase of the work the THINK! team has engaged with organisations such as the National Union of Teachers and the National Governors Association to understand factors that impact on road safety education in schools including time, resources, IT facilities and current use of THINK! materials.
All of this information will be used to help develop more effective road safety resources for use by key partners such as teachers, school group leaders and road safety officers and ensure that effective road safety messages are delivered to young people.
This stakeholder activity will launch in the early summer.
Roads: Accidents
Eric Ollerenshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of traffic collisions in the last year involved drivers who had only recently passed their driving test. [147522]
Stephen Hammond: The Department only collects information relating to personal injury road accidents, and therefore does not include damage-only accidents in its statistics. For many of these accidents we hold data on contributory factors which reflect the opinion of the police officer attending the scene.
In 2011, 2.5% of drivers were allocated the contributory factor ‘learner or inexperienced driver’ in reported personal injury accidents where at least one contributory factor was reported. As with all contributory factors, this reflects the police officer’s subjective opinion, and there is no formal definition of an ‘inexperienced’ driver for this purpose.
Statistics for the year 2012 will be available in June 2013.
Buses
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he estimates all (a) single-deck and (b) double-deck buses will be fully accessible. [146692]
Norman Baker: The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 (PSVAR) require all new buses and coaches, used to provide local or scheduled services and designed to carry more than 22 passengers, to be accessible to disabled passengers.
All existing buses and coaches used to provide local or scheduled services will have to comply with PSVAR by end dates between 2015 and 2020, depending on vehicle type. The end dates are 1 January 2015 for single deck buses weighing 7.5 tonnes or less, 1 January 2016 for single deck buses weighing more than 7.5 tonnes and 1 January 2017 for double deck buses. The end date for coaches is 2020.
At November 2012, 69% of all buses in Great Britain met the PSVAR requirements.
Driving Tests
Mr Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether new applicants have to be able to read and write to pass the tests necessary to get a driving licence. [147101]
Stephen Hammond: The driving test consists of a theory test of road safety knowledge and hazard perception, and a practical test of driving ability. We recognise that candidates who cannot read or write may find parts of the testing regime challenging. The Driving Standards Agency, therefore, works with special education needs (SEN) stakeholders to review the way we interact with candidates, including those with difficulties reading and writing, and has made adjustments to accommodate them, whilst maintaining the integrity of the test and seeking to ensure the standard of road safety is not adversely affected.
