Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many road traffic accidents involved road surface defects as a contributory factor in each of the past three years.

The number of reported personal injury road collisions in Great Britain that were assigned the “Poor or defective road surface or deposits on road” road safety factor (RSF) are shown in the table:

Data on road collisions involving personal injury are reported to the Department by police forces in Great Britain via the STATS19 system.

Following the most recent STATS19 review contributory factors (CFs) are being replaced by new road safety factors (RSFs), in some police forces from late 2023 onwards. This has resulted in a break in the time series for some of the data. As a result, we are presenting all data using the RSF specification (direct), but separating out data initially recorded as CFs (converted).

Because of that, the numbers presented are the combination of direct and converted numbers.

Further details can be found in published road safety factors guidance.

STATS19 includes all road collisions involving human death or personal injury occurring on the Highway ('road' in Scotland) and notified to the police within 30 days of occurrence, and in which one or more vehicles are involved, are to be reported. Collisions occurring on private roads (except Royal Parks) or in car parks are not included. Full details of which roads are reportable for STATS19 purposes can be found in the STATS20 guidance available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/road-accident-and-safety-statistics-guidance#data-collection