The Government has said it has no plans to implement a graduated driver licensing system for young drivers despite calls from road safety stakeholders and bereaved parents.

Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood said the Government was exploring ways to tackle the issue of road deaths “without unfairly penalising young drivers”

In a debate on road safety for young drivers at Westminster last week, Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood said the Government was exploring ways to tackle the issue of road deaths “without unfairly penalising young drivers”.

Latest statistics show younger drivers are over-represented in road casualties and fatalities.

According to DfT statistics, in 2023, a younger driver (aged between 17 and 24) was involved in around a fifth of all killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties from collisions involving cars.

In particular, males aged 17 to 24 are four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured while driving compared with all car drivers aged 25 or over.

Graduated driving licensing (GDL) imposes restrictions on younger drivers who have passed their test, such as controls on the time of day the restricted licence holder can drive unsupervised, or restrictions on the passengers they can carry.

While the Government said in November 2024 that it was not considering GDL for Britain, such a system has been proven in other countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand as well as many US states, to significantly reduce road deaths and serious injuries.

A report in 2018 by the Transport Research Laboratory concluded that graduated driving licensing not only saves lives and reduces serious injuries, but it also saves millions of pounds.

In May 2024, Kim Leadbeater, Labour MP for Batley and Spen, introduced the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (New Drivers) bill under the 10-minute rule. This would have created a GDL scheme for newly qualified drivers. The bill did not progress past first reading, but was supported by the AA and the RAC.

Forget-me-not Families Uniting, a group of bereaved parents whose sons and daughters were all killed by cars driven by young drivers, said it was “disappointed” that the Government is not considering GDL.

Speaking in the Westminster debate last week, Lilian Greenwood said young driver safety was an area of “huge public concern”.

“Although we are not considering graduated driving licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately the victims of tragic collisions on our roads, which is why we are exploring options to tackle the root causes of the issue without unfairly penalising young drivers,” she stated. “The Government want to ensure young people’s access to employment, education and other opportunities while keeping them safe on the roads.”

Greenwood said the Government was looking at specific road safety measures, supported by Driver2020, the DfT’s largest young driver research project. The initiative evaluated a range of interventions to improve the safety of young drivers, and the DfT has now received the final report, which it said would inform considerations.

Greenwood added that the Government could also look to international experience, such as the experiences of countries with a lower or zero alcohol limit for young drivers, or a minimum learning period.

She also spoke about the evolving work of the Government’s Think! campaigns, which are “doing even more to land the vital messages, including working with content creators and influential platforms such as LadBible to tackle speeding via the voices that young audiences trust.”.

The DfT is also developing a new road safety strategy, as announced last year and building on Labour’s manifesto commitment. Greenwood said more details would be set out in due course but the strategy would adopt a safe system approach and would need all partners working together – policymakers, road engineers and designers, vehicle manufacturers, the police and road users.

Following the debate, RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “Despite the Future of Roads Minister firmly ruling out graduated driver licensing in Tuesday’s parliamentary debate on road safety for young drivers, it’s clear the Government intends to take action to save lives.

“We’re pleased to hear this and are keen to find out what measures it believes will make the biggest difference, especially given so many young drivers are involved in collisions in their first year of driving.”