New Brake analysis reveals widespread assist for a stronger licensing system
A brand new report from street security charity Brake has revealed each the size of concern round younger driver security and the energy of public assist for harder measures to scale back danger on Britain’s roads.
Revealed on 15 April 2026, Brake’s Younger Driver Security report relies on a survey of three,000 UK adults and located that 35% of individuals have both been in a crash involving a younger driver or know somebody who has. Amongst 18 to 24-year-olds, that determine rises sharply to 54%, underlining simply how extensively the difficulty is felt.
The report lands at a time when the Authorities is consulting on a variety of street security measures, together with proposals linked to younger and novice drivers. Brake says the findings ought to function a transparent sign to ministers that the general public expects stronger motion to stop dying and critical harm.
Younger drivers stay one of many highest-risk teams on the street. In response to the report, 20% of collisions on Britain’s roads in 2024 that resulted in dying or critical harm concerned a automobile pushed by somebody aged 17 to 24. That equates to 4,740 folks killed or severely injured every year in crashes involving younger drivers. Importantly, the implications lengthen far past the younger motorists themselves, with round half of these killed or severely injured in these collisions being different street customers, together with pedestrians, cyclists, passengers and different drivers.
Brake’s analysis additionally suggests this isn’t a difficulty folks see as distant or summary. Almost six in ten respondents, 59%, mentioned they fear that they or somebody they love could possibly be concerned in a crash with a younger driver. That sense of public concern is matched by clear backing for reform. Greater than three-quarters of these surveyed, 77%, mentioned they assist a stronger driver licensing system in Britain to scale back deaths and accidents from crashes involving younger drivers, whereas 72% mentioned strengthening the licensing system is important to save lots of lives.
The charity’s report focuses on measures usually related to graduated driver licensing, generally known as GDL. These can embrace a minimal studying interval earlier than a sensible check, staged driving privileges for newly certified drivers, and focused restrictions in the course of the highest-risk interval instantly after passing. Brake argues that such an strategy is designed to not punish younger folks, however to equip them extra successfully for impartial driving and cut back the probability of devastating early collisions.
There was additionally broad assist for particular person measures that might strengthen the present system. Seven in ten respondents mentioned there needs to be a minimal studying interval, for instance six months, earlier than a learner can take their sensible check. Nearly three-quarters mentioned newly certified drivers ought to have to attend earlier than being allowed to hold peer-age passengers, and an identical proportion supported delaying unsupervised late-night driving in the course of the first months after passing. The strongest backing got here for a zero-tolerance strategy to drink-driving amongst new drivers, with 88% agreeing that they shouldn’t be allowed to drink any alcohol when driving for the primary six months after passing their check.
Ross Moorlock, Brake’s CEO, mentioned: “Yearly at Brake, we assist greater than 2,000 individuals who have been bereaved or injured in street crashes by means of our Nationwide Street Sufferer Service. So, we see first-hand the trauma and devastation that unfolds. The truth that so many crashes contain younger drivers, who’re simply beginning a brand new, thrilling chapter of their lives as adults, provides to the heartache.
“We now have campaigned for a few years for a stronger driver licensing system, with provisions geared toward equipping younger and newly certified drivers with the abilities and information they should safely take to the roads and acquire their independence.
“We regularly hear that dying and harm on our roads is inevitable, and that any legislative adjustments to driver licensing unfairly penalise younger folks and prohibit their freedom. It’s important that we shift our perspective. We all know that collisions are preventable, and stronger licensing empowers younger folks to be secure and accountable drivers and protects everybody who makes use of our roads.
“Our report actually highlights that public opinion is on our aspect. It’s time for the Authorities to hear, step up and take agency motion to deal with the unacceptable degree of dying and harm on our roads. It’s time for change.”
The report additionally attracts on the voices of households immediately affected by these tragedies. Phoebe Johnson was 17 when she died in October 2021 from accidents sustained in a late-night crash. The 19-year-old driver of the automobile she was travelling in had handed her check simply eight weeks earlier and was driving at night time on a rural street whereas carrying peer passengers. Phoebe’s mom, Nicky Johnson, is backing Brake’s marketing campaign for stronger licensing and believes the legislation should change to stop different households experiencing the identical loss.
She mentioned: “If any components of graduated driver licensing had been legislation, I consider they wouldn’t have taken that journey, and Phoebe would nonetheless be right here.”
Professional opinion included within the report additionally reinforces the case for reform. Shaun Helman, chief scientist, behavioural sciences at TRL, mentioned: “Brake’s work is well timed, and vital throughout the wider context of the 2026 Street Security Technique. It demonstrates broad public assist for measures just like the minimal studying interval at the moment beneath session, and even measures that transcend this, to reform licensing and defend younger lives.”
Dr Ian Greenwood, who has campaigned on the difficulty since his 12-year-old daughter Alice was killed in a crash, mentioned: “Brake’s analysis builds on present proof that the general public largely helps reform to the driving force licensing system for younger and novice drivers.
“The dangers related to inexperienced younger drivers have been identified for nearly a century. The devastating penalties of crashes involving younger drivers is seen nearly each week within the information, and proof in favour of a stronger licensing system has been obtainable since graduated driver licensing was first launched in New Zealand in 1987. I strongly assist Brake’s name on Authorities to behave to stop dying and harm on Britain’s roads.”
Dr Neale Kinnear, chartered psychologist and behavioural scientist at Affective Mobility Ltd, added: “The proof is unambiguous: new drivers are at their most susceptible within the months instantly after passing the sensible check, and the implications lengthen nicely past the younger driver themselves.
“A structured licensing framework doesn’t restrict younger drivers, it equips them. It offers younger folks, dad and mom, instructors and insurers a transparent framework for managing danger and supporting the event of safer drivers. The proof and the general public are aligned and the chance to behave has by no means been clearer.”
For driver trainers, the report provides additional weight to the present debate round how learners are ready not simply to move the check, however to drive safely as soon as supervision ends. With the Authorities’s session on a minimal studying interval open till 11.59pm on Monday 11 Could, Brake is urging the general public, dad and mom, street security professionals and wider stakeholders to reply and press for significant change. The total Younger Driver Security report might be learn on the Brake web site.
