Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of a television advertising campaign to help to raise awareness of the changes to the Highway Code which came into effect on 29th January 2022.

The changes to The Highway Code to help improve road safety for people walking, cycling and horse riding have been communicated in two phases:

• A factual awareness raising campaign in February and March, alerting road users to the changes as they came into effect.
• A broader behaviour change campaign in July and August, to align with seasonal increases in active travel, to help embed the changes and encourage understanding and uptake of the new guidance.

Both phases of the campaign were supported by a significant media spend, using channels such as radio, digital audio, video on demand and social media advertising.

Specialist media planners and buyers are commissioned to secure the optimum and most cost-effective media placement for our messaging. The campaign plan used contextual opportunities, raising awareness at the point of the behaviour, as well as priming opportunities to diffuse tensions and build empathy and understanding amongst road user groups. Channels were selected that were able to build high levels of reach and frequency amongst the target audiences to deliver both message take-out and planned behaviour change.