Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many successful prosecutions for using a mobile telephone while in control of a motor vehicle were recorded in each of the last five years.

Regulation 110 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 creates a prohibition on the use of mobile telephones in motor vehicles. All such offences are initially prosecuted by the police. Only those cases where the offence is contested are referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Records held by the CPS identify the number of contested offences in which a prosecution commenced and reached a first hearing in magistrates’ courts, rather than the number of successful prosecutions.

During the last five years the number of these offences, prosecuted by the CPS, was as follows:

Data Source: CPS Management Information System

There is no indication of the number of individual defendants prosecuted for these offences or the final outcome of the prosecution proceeding or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at the time of finalisation.

These figures do not reflect prosecutions under the Road Traffic Act for offences of dangerous and careless driving where use of a mobile phone was a factor.