Use of Mobile Phone While Driving (566A/23)
Request
I am looking for information relating to enforcement regarding the use of mobile phones while in a vehicle following the Amendment of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 that came into effect on 25th March 2022.
In particular, are you able to provide me with:
1) The number of prosecutions in relation to the use of mobile phones while driving under the regulations effective 25th March 2022. This can include information relating to people who have also been prosecuted since 25th March 2022 under regulations in place before this date.
Please provide a total number of prosecutions since March 25th 2022.
2) The number of prosecutions in relation to the use of mobile phones while driving under the active regulations between 25th March 2021 and 24th March 2022.
Please provide a total number of prosecutions between 25th March 2021 and 24th March 2022.
3) The number of incidents where police gave ‘words of advice’ to motorists found in contravention of Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 relating to the use of a mobile phone when in charge of a car since 25th March 2022.
Please provide breakdown by calendar month of the number of incidents where ‘words of advice’ were given to motorists since March 25th 2022.
Response
Questions 1 & 2 – See attached (566A_23_attachment.pdf).
Question 3 – Officers are not required to report on when ‘advice is given in relation to the use of mobile phones while driving’ and therefore this information is not centrally collated or held by our Traffic Investigations Unit. It is possible that some officers may have recorded details of an encounter of this type in their pocket notebook. However, it is not possible to determine this without manually going through every officer’s notebook and such a search would far exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.