Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Rule H1 of the Highway Code, a) what assessment she has made of whether the hierarchy of road users alters expectations of legal responsibility in collisions involving motorists; b) whether her Department has undertaken any analysis of how the rule has been interpreted by insurers, police forces, or the courts; and c) whether guidance has been issued to clarify that motorists do not carry automatic presumption of fault under the hierarchy.

The previous government did not initiate any assessment of the impact of Rule H1 following their introduction of the rule in 2022.

Rule H1 of the Highway Code is an advisory rule. Although failure to comply with the advisory rules of the Highway Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, contraventions of these rules may be used as evidence in court to establish liability for a road traffic offence. Advisory rules include those which begin ‘should/should not’ and ‘do/do not’.

All road users are required to comply with road traffic law, in the interests of their own safety and that of other road users. If road users do not adopt a responsible attitude or if their use of the highway creates an unsafe environment, or causes nuisance, they may be committing a number of offences that can make them liable for prosecution.

Enforcement of the law is a matter for the police who will decide on the evidence of each individual case, whether an offence has been committed and the appropriate action to take.