HC Deb 17 December 1987 vol 124 cc743-4W
Mr. Cash

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he will report the results of the review of the road accident reporting system (STATS 19).

Mr. Peter Bottomley

The report of the review is now complete and is being released as a statistical bulletin. A copy is in the Library.

The main findings are as follows:

  1. (i) The present STATS 19 system (revised in 1979) should be retained. Modern database systems should be used as far as possible in order that any future changes can be more readily implemented.
  2. (ii) A new return should be introduced, which would record the registration number of vehicles involved in personal injury accidents. These vehicle registration numbers would be matched with vehicle records held at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre (DVLC) and relevant information about the vehicle would be copied to the STATS 19 files. Information from the enhanced database would be used to assess the safety of different types of vehicle in various circumstances, including the effects on occupants and pedestrians.
  3. (iii) Details of the new return and the date for its implementation should be determined as a result of discussions with the police and local authorities at the Standing Committee on Road Accident Statistics.
  4. (iv) Following recommendation (ii), consideration should be given to dropping those data items on the STATS 19 form, which will be obtainable from the vehicle records at DVLC.

Following these recommendations—discussions are in progress with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the local authority associations — our objective is to ensure that we are fully equipped with the right statistics to support our efforts to cut road casualties.