Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has conducted public awareness campaigns on the dangers of mobile phone use while driving.

THINK! is the Government’s flagship road safety campaign, which aims to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads by addressing a range of issues, including mobile phone distraction. In 2022, the Government ran a THINK! Campaign targeting 17-24 year old men and women, which coincided with the broadening of the legal offence of using a handheld phone while driving.

The campaign led to 75% of young men agreeing that it is always dangerous to use a handheld phone when you are at the wheel, with between two thirds to 80% of the audience taking action to change their behaviour after seeing the campaign’s short films.

Previous THINK! campaigns have addressed the role of passengers in distracting drivers, including through mobile phone use. Mobile phone campaigns also ran in 2017 and 2018 after the 2017 increase in penalties for driving while using a handheld phone. A radio advert asking drivers to ‘Put your phone away’ runs throughout the year via the Fillers service, through which radio stations run public service adverts at no cost.