Recommendation 3

HM Government Acknowledged

We agree with the Committee’s recommendation that further study on whether intensive driving lessons are associated with a greater risk of a collision post-test (compared to regular lessons) may be useful. While we recognise that people learn to drive for different reasons and that an intensive approach to learning might suit certain people in certain circumstances, several research studies have shown that increasing the amount (and breadth) of pre-test on-road experience can decrease the risk of collision post-test. For this reason, The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) messaging encourages learners to obtain a broad range of pre-test driving experience and intensive courses are not encouraged as they are contrary to this. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) official learning materials, and the accompanying on-line Drivers Record,3 promotes learners obtaining a broad range of pre-test driving experience, including on 2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24437141_Effects_of_Age_and_Experience_on_Young_Driver_ Crashes_Review_of_Recent_Literature 3 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keep-a-record-of-your-pupils-driving-lessons different types of roads and in different traffic conditions such as at night and in different weather conditions. As well recording driving experience, the Drivers Record also allows the learner and their ADI to monitor progress through the learning to drive process and acknowledge when the learner moves from being prompted by the trainer to driving independently of detailed instructions. DVSA is further promoting the benefit of the Drivers Record as part of its communications to support the safe resumption of driver testing following the interruptions caused by the covid pandemic. We do not have any formal evidence around crash rates for those who pass their driving test after undertaking intensive driving lessons, but DVSA examiners do raise concerns about the standard of some test candidates who learn in this way, but we have no evidence of their post-test history. To obtain evidence to verify whether those who undertake intensive driving lessons are at an increased risk of being involved in a crash post-test (compared to those who learn in a more traditional way), we would need to monitor crash rates amongst novices. As indicated in our response to recommendation 1, this would require bespoke research likely involving surveys of a large sample of new drivers (it is possible that both recommendation 1 and recommendation 2 could be addressed via a single study). This would be resource intensive to collect, but as we lack firm evidence of the safety implications of intensive driving lessons we agree it would be helpful to have more information. As research projects for this financial year have already been agreed by Ministers, we will consider whether research in this area should be considered as part of the 2022/23 research programme.