§ Lord Jacobsasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many bus drivers were successfully prosecuted in 2000 for a driving offence involving the use of a hand-held mobile phone. [HL861]
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonFor England and Wales there is no separate offence of driving a vehicle using a mobile telephone and any prosecution is likely to be for driving without due care and attention, for which there were 54,789 prosecutions resulting in 45,509 convictions in 1999 (latest available figures). The employment status of a defendant is not recorded centrally.
It is also possible for such drivers to be prosecuted or issued with a fixed penalty for not being in proper control of a vehicle (Regulation 104 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986), but such cases cannot be separately identified in the statistics collected centrally.
Similarly, for Scotland the offence is not separately identifiable. There were 4,148 offences of careless driving with a charge proved in Scottish Courts in 1999.
For Northern Ireland, prosecutions data for calendar year 1999 and 2000 are not available.