Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of people using mobile phones while driving; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Jones

The government’s recent consultation on bringing in tougher sanctions received near unanimous support for tougher penalties. The Secretary of State for Transport has pledged to bring tougher sanctions in as soon as possible, we expect them to take effect in the first half of 2017.

Anyone using a hand-held device while driving will face higher on the spot fines and more points on their driving licence than they do today.

The government is also developing a hard-hitting THINK! campaign to tackle this issue, to make it socially unacceptable like drink driving or not wearing a seatbelt.