Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of a national speeding campaign to tackle speeding offences on rural roads.

Road safety is a top priority for the Government, and the Department takes this very seriously. Road deaths and injuries can cause suffering, economic loss and life-changing misfortune, and reducing this on our roads is a key priority, including through reducing speeding.

One of the ways the Department does this is through the THINK! campaign, which currently targets young male drivers who are over-represented in deaths and serious injuries on our roads. THINK! is running a national speeding campaign targeted at this audience, following an uplift in the proportion of vehicles speeding in the first national lockdown. In 2019, speed-related factors contributed to almost half of road deaths and serious injuries among this audience and we know that young men are over-represented in industries where they still need to travel for work despite lockdown restrictions, such as manufacturing and essential retail. The campaign uses paid social media, broadcast radio, digital radio and Spotify advertising,, including messaging targeted specifically at young drivers travelling on rural roads.

Messaging on speeding and rural roads will also form part of an upcoming campaign due to launch in early summer which will also target high-risk young male drivers, and we will also use the Cabinet Office service to run radio advertising aimed at changing attitudes towards speeding among a broader audience, including a focus on rural roads.