Transport Committee Stage: New Road Safety Strategy Update

Request for accurate reporting requirements to establish the true scale of occupational road collisions for clearer understanding of occupational risk

Background

The Transport Committee has recently been hearing from road safety industry experts, including Jamie Hassall, executive director at the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) and Steve Cole, director of policy and impact at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), regarding the implementation of the New Road Safety Strategy. One particular area of concern, which has been flagged repeatedly, is the issue of all work-related road collision statistics and whether they are being properly captured and reported. 

Role and scope of RIDDOR

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations, known as RIDDOR, sets out the legal requirement for employers (and others) to formally report and keep records of serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases and near-misses.

The HSE has recently consulted on clarifying definitions within RIDDOR and the consultation, which closed on 30th June 2026. The purpose of the consultation is to improve the clarity of definitions and the quality and consistency of reporting, including updates to guidance on “work-related” incidents and the recording of dangerous occurrences.

Request to Increase Scope of RIDDOR to Include work based Collisions

From a road safety perspective, there have been a number of requests, most notably from Jamie Hassall of PACTS, for work-related road traffic collisions to be clearly and consistently captured within reporting frameworks. When recently giving evidence to the Transport Committee, he highlighted that there are gaps in how these incidents are recorded, which limits our ability to understand the true scale of occupational road risk and to target prevention effectively.

PACTS has highlighted in their response to the RIDDOR consultation, the need for clearer inclusion of work-related road risk within RIDDOR definitions and guidance, including consideration of road traffic collisions where they result in, or have the potential to result in, serious harm. PACTS is also encouraging better recognition of the role of driving for work within wider occupational health and safety reporting.

As it stands, the Road Safety Strategy does not propose this key change, of making work related road deaths RIDDOR reportable, which would make it a legal requirement for companies to have to report driving accidents alongside accident occurring on work premises.

Jamie Hassall, recently told MPs: 

“We have a fantastic Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which reports that falling from a height is the biggest cause of work-related death. It is not; it is on the road.”

In summary, he says that information needs to be reported all in one place.

“I would love to be able to say how many children have been killed by people driving for work.” But, he explained: “I do not think anyone could answer that question, because we do not keep the data.”

Current Statistics are Incomplete 

The government’s current road safety statistics give a detailed breakdown on the number of people killed or seriously injured on the country’s roads, but they fail to paint the full picture of the circumstances in which the collision occurred. However, road safety experts have labelled the system flawed for not being able to capture all of those incidents involving somebody driving for work. 

The DfT acknowledges its figures are based on a “number of assumptions” which critics say limits their reliability and our understanding of occupational road risk. 

New Road Safety Investigatory Branch – Importance of Accurate Collision Data

A key element of the new road safety strategy is the implementation of the Road Safety Investigatory Branch. In order for the Branch to be as effective as possible, accurate collision reporting is essential. Safety campaigners have highlighted that by including work related collisions within RIDDOR, the new Branch will be provided with the best opportunity to properly understand occupational road risk and provide helpful guidance to employers and regarding the effective management and control of that risk. Safety recommendations from the Branch will consider improvements to road design, vehicle safety, driver behaviour, enforcement and infrastructure.

Steve Cole of RoSPA recently explained, when giving evidence to the Transport Committee, why exactly RIDDOR should include work-based collisions in its reporting requirements and why RIDDOR goes further in the information required to be reported, rather than the currently limited basic statistics: 

“RIDDOR provides the investigation evidence that we do not get in Stats19 reporting because… we only get the blame – the legal culpability – rather than the causation.”

“Was the driver fatigued? Had they been on the back of a 40-hour shift? Were they on any medication? Those are the sorts of thing.”

Hassall provided the Transport Committee with an example of comparative cases to demonstrate the limitations currently of the RIDDOR system where a work vehicle is involved, namely:

 “A concrete lorry could plough through a family of three and kill them all and it would not be Riddor-reportable; however, if it spilled some concrete, it would be Riddor-reportable. That does not make sense.”

Impact on the Transport Industry 

The counter argument in the industry for not including work-based accidents within RIDDOR reporting requirements is that businesses already effectively manage occupational road risk, due to complex current regulatory requirements.  The Traffic Commissioner and DVSA oversee incidents involving larger vehicles, but smaller work vehicles fall outside their scope. Therefore, an all-encompassing RIDDOR reporting regime for all work vehicle collisions would for the first time provide definitive statistics regarding the extent of occupational collisions.  

The HSE is currently stretched, but the capturing of occupational collisions alone within RIDDOR would enable better management and control of risk factors in due course, by including occupational road risk in RIDDOR statistics.

Kate Hargan, Clyde and Co’s Head of Motor Crime, stated the following:

“It will be interesting to see whether the government acknowledges the apparent gap in current accident reporting involving work vehicles and if so, whether they are willing to include work-based collisions within the new RIDDOR requirements. Road safety leaders have advanced detailed, extensive arguments that occupational road and vehicle safety risk can only be properly managed as part of the road safety strategy when we place the requirement on employers to report at the outset in a more detailed, comprehensive way.”