Road Traffic Offences: Safety Belts
(asked on 4th September 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) males, and (2) females, aged (a) 16–23, (b) 24–29, (c) 30–34, and (d) 34 and over, were (i) prosecuted for, and (ii) convicted of, wearing a seat belt incorrectly in each of the last two years for which information is available.
The Ministry of Justice has published information on the number of males and females prosecuted and convicted for broader ‘seat belt offences’ by age group:
Prosecutions and Convictions for seat belt offences, by sex (where sex was known) and age group, England and Wales, year ending December 2014 to year ending December 2018
Prosecutions | |||||
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Males | 7,158 | 6,884 | 6,605 | 5,288 | 5,639 |
Juveniles | 30 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 7 |
Young adults | 290 | 248 | 230 | 174 | 185 |
Adults | 6,838 | 6,616 | 6,365 | 5,106 | 5,447 |
Females | 944 | 869 | 722 | 546 | 652 |
Juveniles | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
Young adults | 52 | 29 | 31 | 20 | 23 |
Adults | 884 | 839 | 688 | 524 | 627 |
Total | 8,102 | 7,753 | 7,327 | 5,834 | 6,291 |
Convictions | |||||
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Males | 6,554 | 6,351 | 6,205 | 5,018 | 5,299 |
Juveniles | 22 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
Young adults | 270 | 228 | 219 | 165 | 177 |
Adults | 6,262 | 6,111 | 5,980 | 4,848 | 5,117 |
Females | 865 | 791 | 664 | 507 | 594 |
Juveniles | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Young adults | 48 | 25 | 30 | 19 | 19 |
Adults | 812 | 765 | 633 | 486 | 575 |
Total | 7,419 | 7,142 | 6,869 | 5,525 | 5,893 |
Adults are those offenders aged 21 and over, whilst juveniles are aged under 18 and young adults are aged 18-20.
‘Seat belt offences’ cover a range of different offences, but a large proportion would be for not wearing a seat belt. The Ministry of Justice does not have a classification for specific offences involving ‘wearing a seatbelt incorrectly‘; this may fall under the broader offence of seat belt offences, but to identify these specific offences would require a manual search of court records, which would be of disproportionate cost.