Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data his Department collects on road traffic collisions involving horses; and whether he plans to improve the recording and publication of statistics on such incidents.

The Department’s published road collision statistics are based on data reported by police forces via the STATS19 data collection system. STATS19 covers collisions on the public highway reported to and recorded by police, and which involve injury to one or more human participants. This includes collisions involving horses. Within the collection, horses are recorded as vehicles, and riders (when injured) as casualties.

There are currently no plans to change the recording of incidents involving horses in STATS19. The collection is reviewed periodically by the Standing Committee on Road Injury Collision Statistics (SCRICS). Any proposals to amend the collection will be considered during the next review, though the timing of this has not yet been set.