Thematic inspection of road policing in Scotland

17. Police Scotland understands its purpose and vision of improving road safety and tackling road crime. It has clearly articulated these roles and laid out how it intends to continue providing policing services towards them. However, during our inspection we found that, in practice, other priorities (such as protecting the vulnerable in society) are preventing officers and staff from focusing on road safety and road crime, and fulfilling this commitment.

18. It is important to understand the current and historical picture for road safety in Scotland. Data from Transport Scotland in 2023 shows a clear and significant downward trend in the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on Scotland’s roads since 1969. As seen in the graph below, the trend shows a reduction from a high of 892 fatalities in 1969 to 155 in 2023 (a similar downward trend has been replicated across the rest of the UK). While such a reduction is significant and welcome, too many people continue to be killed and seriously injured on Scotland’s roads.

19. Police Scotland and its partners continue to have a key role in reducing Scotland’s KSIs. They achieve this through enforcement and education, to improve driver and road user standards and behaviour, and by supporting engineering changes, making both roads and vehicles safer.

Figure 1: Total Number of reported road fatalities, 1950 to 2023

20. We were pleased to find that Police Scotland aligns its strategic road safety priorities to that of the Transport Scotland Road Safety Framework to 2030. This, in turn, drives Scottish progress towards the Safe System approach and Vision Zero, an international concept with the aim of eliminating all traffic fatalities and severe injuries in road users by 2050.

21. During our inspection we interviewed many officers and staff in Police Scotland, key road safety partners, road safety subject experts, and representatives from UK and Scottish governments and other UK police forces. There was a common perception that much of the reduction in KSIs over the past seven decades could be attributed to:

• the development of safer vehicles (which are better maintained and equipped with more internal and external safety features); and
• work done to design and build safer roads (through analysis and engineering to identify and design better roads, barriers, lighting, junctions and speed limits, etc).

22. There was also a perception that many improvements were down to a change in public acceptance and tolerance towards drink driving and the wearing of seatbelts.

23. Despite the downward trends, 155 people still lost their lives on Scotland’s roads in 2023. While that was a reduction from the previous year (171), there was a 9 per cent increase in those seriously injured in 2023 – rising from 1,778 in 2022, to 1,930. In fact, road casualties (i.e., deaths and injuries) have increased in Scotland since 2020 and the downward trend in KSIs appears to have stalled or, in some categories, increased.

Competing priorities

24. Improving road safety and tackling road crime are among the many different types of services provided by Police Scotland to the people and communities of Scotland. We found that Police Scotland has appropriately assessed and articulated the threat, risk and harm associated with road safety and road crime in Scotland and that the key issues and concerns have been set out in writing at strategic, tactical and operational levels in a language that is appropriate and understandable.

25. From documentation submitted to us as part of this inspection’s self-evaluation exercise, we are content that Police Scotland has appropriately assessed the threats and risks associated with road safety, and note it has identified this as a high priority at both national and local levels.

26. HMICS acknowledges that police resources are finite and, as noted above, there are many competing matters requiring officers’ and staff’s time and commitment on a daily (and longer term) basis. Improving road safety was found to be positioned among other police priorities such as tackling hate crime, counter-terrorism, and violence and disorder. Very high priorities were noted as community wellbeing, violence against women and girls, serious organised crime and cyber-crime. In tackling these priorities, Police Scotland is also required to act with a policing purpose of improving the safety and wellbeing of persons, localities and communities in Scotland, as set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012.

Annual Police Plan

27. In its 2023-24 Annual Police Plan, Police Scotland addressed road safety:

“Outcome 1 – Threats to public safety and wellbeing are resolved by a proactive and responsive police service’, where Police Scotland sets an objective of ‘designing services jointly to tackle complex public safety and wellbeing challenges”.

To achieve this, Police Scotland proposed to reduce deaths and serious injury on Scotland’s road network through the increased use of intelligence-led policing and proactive engagement with all road users. Four progress milestones were set out:

• review of engagement and enforcement undertaken in support of the National Calendar of Road Safety Activity
• use of proactive enforcement, including speed enforcement and targeting of impaired driving, to protect all road users (particularly vulnerable road users)
• flexible deployments of Safety Camera Unit resources to address emerging casualty trends
• optimise understanding and maximise learning through an in-depth roads fatality study.

28. We found these activity descriptors and milestones to be unhelpfully vague and suggest they could be achieved with the minimum of effort, which would be unlikely to make any genuine impact on improving road safety or tackling road crime. We also found a lack of effective tasking and coordination, and gaps in intelligence support, meaning limited evidence of proactive tasking to address road safety/road crime concerns.

29. In its 2024-25 Annual Police Plan (published March 2024), there is no detailed mention of road safety or commitments to any other specific types of police work. There is, however, a commitment to improve the culture of Police Scotland alongside increasing its front-line strength and improving service delivery. There are two further priorities about supporting workforce wellbeing and redesigning and reshaping its internal support functions.

30. While the 2024/25 Annual Police Plan has changed in style and content, the Chief Constable, in her foreword, commits to finding a balance with key partners to minimise police officer engagement with vulnerable people once the moment of crisis has passed and public safety is assured. The Chief Constable further states that Police Scotland should focus on its core duties and what matters to the people of Scotland, highlighting road traffic enforcement as one of the areas of police work that she will ‘be a champion and voice for’.

Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030

31. In 2021, Transport Scotland published its Road Safety Framework to 2030, a strategic document setting out its continued ambitious plan to work towards Scotland having the best road safety performance in the world. Key interim targets, to be achieved by 2030 (in comparison to a baseline period of 2014-18), were:

• 50 per cent reduction in people killed;
• 50 per cent reduction in people seriously injured;
• 60 per cent reduction in children (aged <16) killed; and
• 60 per cent reduction in children (aged <16) seriously injured.

32. Transport Scotland’s latest update on progress against the targets (published 29 May 2024), shows that only the second target (50 per cent reduction in people seriously injured) was tracking to be achieved by 2030. The other three reduction targets were marked as ‘not on track to meet the framework target for 2030’.

Road Policing Delivery Plan

33. Police Scotland’s Road Policing Division is part of one of Police Scotland’s national divisions, namely Operational Support Division (OSD). It is a singular function which provides a specialised road policing service on a national basis. This means that – while road policing officers and staff are based and work all over Scotland – they are managed by a single senior management team, who may be based elsewhere.

34. In its Delivery Plan 2023-24, Road Policing Division stated it will work with internal and external partners to tackle road safety and road crime issues and address shared priorities. The plan sets out the following four objectives:

• effective patrolling of the roads
• influence driver behaviour and road user behaviour
• deter and detect all types of criminality on our roads
• combat the threat in terrorism.

35. We found no numerical targets against any of these objectives, so suggest it may be difficult to correlate police activity to any improvements or otherwise in Scotland’s road safety picture. The plan also provides that Road Policing Division will address these objectives by targeting priority routes (those with a history of road collisions where people have been killed or seriously injured) and focusing on ‘fatal five’ enforcement. This is police enforcement of the main causes of collisions:

• careless driving
• speeding
• drink or drug driving
• not wearing seatbelts
• being distracted while driving (mobile phone use, etc.).

36. Road Policing Division further state it will tackle the objectives using the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system, with enhanced enforcement and intelligence-led targeting of offenders, by conducting high-visibility operations on priority routes and working collaboratively with partners.

37. Road Policing Division, through its plan, is central in providing Police Scotland’s commitment to contribute to the Road Safety Framework to 2030.

Local Policing Plans

38. It should be noted that Road Policing Division makes up around just 3.5 per cent of Police Scotland’s current police officer numbers and, as such, it would be unreasonable to expect Road Policing Division alone to be singularly responsible for Police Scotland’s continued efforts to improve road safety or tackle road crime.

39. In almost every community in Scotland, road safety is noted as a local concern and priority policing issue. Territorial local policing divisions, which make up the bulk of Police Scotland’s front-line officers, have each developed Local Policing Plans, which tend to be limited to four or five key issues specific to the areas and communities they concern. Police Scotland’s website notes these plans were developed through feedback from local authorities and other partners, as well as from the views of members of the public in those areas (via Police Scotland’s ‘Your Police Survey’ submissions).

40. Despite road safety being a priority in almost every local plan, we heard repeatedly and consistently during interviews with local policing officers that they were unable to dedicate time to improving road safety, or tackle road crime. This was down to a lack of available police officers, or their being tasked to other, often non-core, policing duties (involving protecting vulnerable people in society).

Resources

41. We heard repeatedly during interviews, and noted in documentation submitted during the self-evaluation process, that police officer numbers in Road Policing Division have reduced significantly since the creation of Police Scotland (with a further reduction in recent times). These reductions are aligned to the reduction in both Police Scotland’s and Road Policing Division’s budgets. In a published Freedom of Information Response, Police Scotland stated that – at the creation of Police Scotland – there were 656 roles/posts in Road Policing Division (although it could not say how many roles/posts may have been vacant).

42. In March 2023, Road Policing Division reported a reduction of another 43 police officers (down from 544 to 501).

43. In November 2023, as a result of this further reduction in road policing officer numbers (combined with increased court abstractions) the senior management team of Road Policing Division decided that:

• its current operating model was no longer sustainable; and
• its continued effort to fulfil a 24/7, 365 days-per-year model was negatively impacting both operational effectiveness and staff health and welfare.

44. A proposal was therefore put forward to change Road Policing Division’s shift pattern to focus on day and late shifts only. (We note that the proposal for change has been put on hold pending the publication of this report.)

45. The reduction in police officer numbers across Police Scotland is unquestionably significant and will, no doubt, affect all communities in Scotland. In June 2024, the Scottish Government reported (see below graph) the police officer full time equivalent (FTE) strength to be 16,207, the lowest in Scotland since 2007. By way of comparison, the reported FTE figure on 31 March 2020 was 17,431, showing a 7 per cent FTE reduction (1,224 police officers) since then.

Figure 2: Total number of police officers (full-time equivalent) in Scotland, 2007-24

46. In the self-evaluation process, Police Scotland stated that, 'the allocation of funds to road policing continues to be challenging. In 2022/23 this led to a reduction in the number of full time posts within road policing’. Police Scotland further stated that, 'at the time of writing, the challenging targets set by the Road Safety Framework to 2030 are unlikely to be achieved’.

Visibility, local policing and Contact, Command and Control Division (C3)

47. As may be expected from such a significant reduction in police officer numbers across Police Scotland and Road Policing Division, there has been a significant reduction in the visibility of both road and local policing officers on Scotland’s roads, dealing with road safety and road crime matters. During our interviews with local and road policing officers, as well as interviews with partner organisations and key stakeholders, interviewees consistently noted a considerable reduction in the number of road policing vehicles patrolling Scotland’s roads.

48. This reduction in availability and visibility will inevitably lead to a reduction in enforcement and prevention activity. It will also lead to a reduction in the public’s fear of being caught, which – in turn – is, as highlighted by a 2023 systematic review on the effectiveness of police presence, likely to lead to an increase in the type of activity and driver behaviour that leads to serious and fatal road collisions.

49. The HMICFRS Road Policing – Not Optional report, published in 2020, made the following recommendation to all chief constables in England and Wales.

“With immediate effect, chief constables should satisfy themselves that the resources allocated to policing the strategic road network within their force areas are sufficient. As part of that process they should make sure that their force has effective partnership arrangements including appropriate intelligence sharing agreements with relevant highways agencies.”

50. The review of road policing instigated by Police Scotland has been paused pending the publication of this report. Given the importance of detecting and disrupting criminals who use the roads, we consider that any future review of road policing by Police Scotland should consider its ability to properly resource and police (on a 24/7 basis) the road and motorway networks that connect major cities, towns, airports and ports across Scotland.

Police priorities

51. In addition to the impact of the reduction in police officer numbers, we believe that – since the creation of Police Scotland – there has been a change in focus away from road safety and road crime, towards other matters.

52. In our Policing Mental Health in Scotland report (October 2023), we noted that – over time and for a variety of reasons – Police Scotland had shifted its focus away from what could be considered the more traditional, core policing roles of preventing and detecting crime and antisocial behaviour, towards supporting the vulnerable in society. In that report, we did not provide specific examples of the type of police activity reduced or stopped, but it is clear from this inspection that road policing activity (both in terms of improving road safety and denying criminals the use of the roads) is one of the areas of policing that now receives less focus.

53. Prioritising the response to calls from the public can be difficult. Police Scotland uses the THRIVE risk assessment process that asks those receiving, reviewing and prioritising calls to consider the six elements of threat, harm, risk, investigative opportunity, vulnerability and engagement. To highlight the difficulty in applying this methodology, we highlight two specific examples that were provided to us.

54. Drink/drug driving is one of the ‘fatal five’ enforcement priorities, but we heard that calls from the public about suspected drink/drug drivers were often not routinely tasked to officers to trace and establish whether any crimes or offences were being committed. Instead, we heard that such calls were often broadcast over the police radio channels for officers’ awareness. This appeared a common response, as there were often other calls that were considered higher priority than a suspected drink or drug driver. If no further calls were received from the public about the vehicle in question, the call would often then be closed, without further police attention or action.

55. We heard that a report of a pedestrian on a motorway or other fast road would receive a swift police response as the THRIVE risk assessment may lead to it being considered a more important call than a report of a drink/drug driver.

56. Given the complex nature of prioritisation of calls, we are pleased to note the progress Police Scotland is making in providing additional training to control room staff following our Assurance Review of Police Scotland Contact Assessment Model (2022).

57. While road safety is, in theory, a high local and national priority, we found it to be the lowest of priorities for local policing officers. Local policing officers said that due to the reduction in officer numbers and the type and nature of calls they normally dealt with, they were already operating at maximum capacity. They told us that the bulk of their day is taken up by what they described as demand-type calls (such as missing person investigations, concern for persons and mental health-related calls). We heard that there is an expectation that everyone takes their fair share of demand-type calls, which they said reduced their capacity to be proactive about road safety and road crime matters.

58. We also noted that few local policing officers were aware of the term ‘fatal five’ or ‘fatal five enforcement’ and while some had, no one was able to name all five enforcement activities. Local policing officers said there was little to no encouragement from supervisors or management teams to be proactive on road policing issues.

Decline in identification of road traffic offences

59. Notwithstanding the work of the Police Scotland Safety Camera Unit, which manages the average, fixed and mobile speed detection cameras in Scotland, most road traffic offences are detected and recorded through police officer pro-activity.

60. Interviewees also told us that speed detection activity by police officers has become rare, despite this being one of the fatal five enforcement activities.

61. As we will highlight later in this report, there has been a 63% reduction in the number of all road traffic offences recorded in Scotland since 2013/14. Road traffic offences, which include all of the fatal five enforcement activities, as well as some other offence types, are set out below:

• Dangerous and careless driving
• Driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs
• Speeding
• Unlawful use of motor vehicle
• Vehicle defect offences
• Seat belt offences
• Mobile phone offences
• Other road traffic offences

62. The road safety charity Brake highlights excessive speed as a contributory factor in one in three fatal road collisions, and speed as a critical component in road collisions. They note that the kinetic energy of a car hitting someone or something at 30 mph has twice as much energy as a crash at 20 mph. Given this, it is concerning to note that speed detections by police officers in Scotland have reduced by 75 per cent since 2014/15.

63. Prevention activity must always be preferred over road deaths/serious injuries and subsequent investigations and prosecutions. We heard from people with experience of losing loved ones to road collisions, and the impact this has on the families and friends cannot be understated.

64. The financial cost to the Scottish and wider UK economies is also significant. Transport Scotland 2020 data showed that, in Great Britain, the costs to the economy was approximately:

• £2m per fatal collision;
• £246k per serious injury collision; and
• £24k per slight injury collision.

65. By applying these estimates to the recent KSI statistics, the total cost for fatal and serious collisions in Scotland in 2023 would be around £784m.

Leadership with Road Policing Division

66. During our inspection, we found that the Road Policing Division had a clear and effective leadership structure, with many experienced and highly dedicated officers and staff. While we found the structure to be an appropriate size, we heard that the levels of engagement and visibility across the division was mixed, with some members of the leadership team being more visible and engaging with staff more than others.

67. Within Police Scotland’s executive team, an Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) has responsibility for Road Policing Division (as part of a wider portfolio of responsibility and oversight). Again, we found this clear and appropriate, and noted that the ACC holds informal meetings with road policing officers and staff.

68. There were mixed views about whether having past road policing experience was beneficial in being part of the division’s senior management team. Most road policing officers we spoke to felt that while it was helpful to have some past experience in the role, since this would provide a better understanding of day to day duties, it was not essential.

69. The scale of the national Road Policing Division means that there are very few officers of Chief Inspector and above available to regularly engage with operational road policing teams unless they are based in the same buildings.

70. In terms of senior management team (SMT) resilience, we heard countering views about the relatively small SMT of Road Policing Division. While some felt the size was appropriate, others felt it could be increased by at least one additional officer at superintendent rank.

71. Police Scotland has recently widened the role of the support superintendent and chief inspector to provide oversight across all of OSD, including road policing. Albeit the support superintendent may provide better resilience, it should be noted that the chief inspector post was previously dedicated to road policing, and is now OSD wide which may impact resilience at that level, although the impact of this change should be monitored.

Governance, risk assessment and prioritisation

72. Road Policing Division has well-established and appropriate systems of internal governance in place, monitoring both Police Scotland’s and Road Policing Division’s support of the Road Safety Framework to 2030, as well as day-to-day operational, developmental and wellbeing-related matters.

73. Road Policing Division tracks operational activity and outcomes, and provides support and direction on a daily basis, controlling and driving progress with internal and external partners through the Road Safety Governance Board and the Tactical Operations Working Group.

74. The threat, risk and harm associated with road safety issues has been well identified, correlated and assessed. Data on road safety is routinely gathered, quality assured and assessed to establish any changes in trends that require further police attention or reprioritisation.

75. Police Scotland also works closely with Transport Scotland to understand trends and identify emerging threats associated with collision classes, and to identify specific casualty types (with a focus on vulnerable road users). This data is shared with partners at meetings, allowing resources to be dedicated in a collaborative manner to the areas of greatest risk. (That said, we noted that the data-sets of Police Scotland and Transport Scotland do not align in terms of the dates used to define a year.)

76. Analytical and intelligence work in support of road safety issues across road and local policing was found to be very limited. A lack of staff in relevant units, alongside a lack of direct tasking to develop road safety and road crime packages, has led a reduction in road safety intelligence-led taskings or briefings for officers. In the divisions we visited, and the officers we interviewed, there was little understanding of road safety picture/trends/hotspots, etc. in their areas.

77. Understanding the causes of KSIs on Scotland’s roads can only assist Police Scotland and its partners improve road safety. The publication of the jointly-authored In-Depth Road Traffic Fatalities Report 2015-2020, was a significant step towards understanding that picture; however, society changes its behaviour regularly and there are frequent road safety innovations and improvements. We believe that maintaining a good understanding of the causal factors for KSIs is vital and we note that the current in-depth fatalities study has been paused due to funding issues. We understand a staff member has now been appointed to progress this work.

Culture

78. Road Policing Division is not representative of either Police Scotland or Scottish society, being largely made up of white, male officers. As part of this inspection, we visited a number of other road policing units in forces in England and Wales (and spoke to representatives from other forces online), and found that this non-representative picture was the norm in both road policing and firearms units.

79. We heard that the leadership team within the division has made efforts to address the issue and to seek a more balanced model, through communications and management of resource deployments. However, despite such remedial measures, we heard reports of:

• female officers feeling uncomfortable;
• cultural issues possibly preventing new female officers joining road policing; and
• a female road policing officer leaving the department due to feeling discriminated against by male colleagues.

80. Police Scotland’s Policing Together strategy was launched in June 2022.Subsecuently, former Chief Constable Sir Iain Livingstone acknowledged institutional discrimination within Police Scotland. The Policing Together strategy reflects both his and Chief Constable Jo Farrell’s commitment to become an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory service with an inclusive environment where people know they belong, and which delivers for all Scotland’s communities in accordance with its values and standards.

81. We heard that female officers may be disproportionately affected by centralised driver training. This was described as ‘un-family-friendly’ and it was suggested local training availability would boost the retention of female officers, since it would reduce the need to stay at the Scottish Police College (SPC) for the duration of the training course. We heard that the decentralisation of specialist driving courses would also allow for better access for officers in rural areas, where lack of local availability is potentially discouraging officers from pursuing the specialism.

82. We support the concept of Policing Together and do not underestimate the challenge (to both Police Scotland and wider UK police services) of the non-representative nature of many road policing functions. We believe that Police Scotland should monitor and evaluate the impact of the Policing Together team and consider progress made towards improving the representative nature of the division.

83. Good work in Road Policing Division is recognised through personal interaction with supervisors and divisional SMT, and through a monthly bulletin. There is also an internal system to acknowledge good work through the OSD Recognition Awards.

84. During our inspection we found almost every officer and staff member engaged with us in a positive, open and honest manner. Most had a genuine hope that their participation could lead to improvement in Police Scotland and the service it provides to the communities of Scotland. We are very grateful to all those who engaged with us during the inspection and would also note the Road Policing Division inspection liaison team were found to be capable, professional and helpful throughout the inspection.

Accountability

85. Police Scotland regularly and publicly reports road safety data to the SPA. We found the information provided to be limited and not fully reflective of the overall contribution the organisation is making towards Scotland’s Road Safety Framework.

86. Accountability and transparency in local policing divisions is formally provided through local scrutiny panels, where a range of information and statistics are provided, normally by the relevant local policing divisional commander.

Innovation

87. Police Scotland has been (and continues to be) innovative in creating projects and activity to improve road safety in Scotland. It conducts analysis of road collision and road casualty data and has attempted to focus on those groups of road users most at risk of being killed or seriously injured on Scotland’s roads. This includes vulnerable road users such as cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists and older or newer/younger drivers.

88. Police Scotland also dedicates some focus in support of UK-wide issues, such as summer and festive drink/drug driving and national speed campaigns.

89. Operation Close Pass, designed to support vulnerable road users such as cyclists (by encouraging wider and safer overtaking by motorists) was a well-known and understood innovative programme among police officers and staff, with evidence provided of it being implemented positively in a number of areas.

90. However, there appears to be limited evaluation of such innovative programmes. We support innovation – and the focus given to it, but would expect better evaluation of any such programmes, with a view to rolling them out nationally, should they be considered worthwhile.

Communication

91. During document reviews and interviews, we found little evidence that Police Scotland communicated road safety as a force and local priority anywhere other than within Road Policing Division.

92. We found that most local policing officers did not know who their local senior lead for road safety was. In the divisions we visited, we found that responsibility for road safety was held by a member of the local senior management team, normally at the chief inspector level. We also found a lack of road safety-specific tasking, performance management activity or briefings. We did hear that road safety tasking was commonly provided to officers as a result of specific issues raised by the public, local/pressure groups, Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), or local elected officials. Such tasking normally fell to the few dedicated community policing officers to try and tackle the specific issue.

93. In terms of public engagement, Police Scotland uses social media to promote key road safety messages. Its corporate communications function helps to deliver key messages throughout the year and also maintains a road safety communications calendar, with messaging supporting events occurring or likely to occur in different parts of Scotland (e.g. motorcycle safety campaigns from spring to early autumn, and drink driving campaigns during peak summer and festive periods). Other campaigns (pavement parking, Get Ready for Winter (along with Transport Scotland), Operation Close Pass and mobile phone campaigns) are all delivered to a schedule to limit any overlapping with other Police Scotland media campaigns and messaging. The close relationship with communications partners, coordination and planning means Road Policing officers are actively taking part in marketing campaigns led by Road Safety Scotland and Cycling Scotland. Road Policing officers are doing broadcast interviews, radio interviews and being quoted in traditional print media from Police Scotland issued press releases, as well as contributing to partner press releases. Other benefits of contributing to marketing campaigns mean Police Scotland feature on paid-for radio adverts, national TV adverts and bus advertising (e.g. Operation Close Pass) to maximise the audience reach and work efficiently with partners.

94. The impact of social media cannot be underestimated. It provides an effective and efficient medium for Police Scotland (and other key road safety partners) to influence road users, raise awareness and help improve road safety, on a daily basis. Given the lack of priority on road safety matters, and the still-high numbers of people killed and seriously injured on Scotland’s roads each year, greater use of social media (in all its forms) could reach many drivers who might not otherwise come into contact with police messaging on road safety and improved driving. The use of social media should not, however, be solely relied upon otherwise people who are unable to use digital technologies would be excluded.

95. Given the significant number of people killed and seriously injured each year, we believe Police Scotland should upgrade and increase its communications plans to encourage preventative action and better driving behaviour, which should improve road safety.