§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will introduce a specific category on police accident fault report forms to enable the identification of whether the use of a mobile phone may have been a factor in the accident.
§ Mr. Chope[holding answer 18 July 1991]: The police complete a STATS19 accident report form for each personal injury road accident that occurs in Great Britain. This form records 70 different items regarding the attendant circumstances of the accident and the vehicles and casualties involved. It does not record the cause of accidents or attempt to apportion blame or find fault, as this is often difficult and sometimes impossible to determine objectively. Some police forces record additional information on injury road accidents for local purposes, but this is not collected centrally.
The content of the STATS19 form is the responsibility of the Standing Committee on Road Accident Statistics, which meets twice a year and includes representatives from the police, local authorities and central Government.