To ask the Minister of the Environment what steps his Department is taking to address the risk factors associated with road fatalities amongst young people.

The Northern Ireland Road Safety Strategy to 2020 recognises that younger people are disproportionately likely to die on Northern Ireland’s roads. The Strategy contains two targets, two of which focus on reducing significantly the number of children and young people killed or seriously injured in road collisions. I have outlined below some of the actions that my Department is taking to achieve these targets.

Young drivers – many of them newly qualified – are disproportionately involved in fatal and serious collisions compared to other drivers. This suggests that we need fundamentally to change how new drivers are trained, tested and gain experience. For this reason, the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill contains enabling provisions for a system of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) in Northern Ireland. The premise of GDL is to prepare new drivers for the challenges of driving on their own – and to protect both them and other road users as they gain experience. The provisions aim to strike a balance between achieving road safety outcomes while not being unduly prohibitive. The Bill is currently at Committee Stage and the detailed provisions will be shaped by the Assembly process.

In addition, much of the focus of our Road Safety Education Officer Service (RSEOS) is on supporting teachers and other professionals to deliver road safety messages to young people, both at primary and increasingly at post primary schools. In primary schools this work includes the Junior Road Safety Officer Scheme, the Cycling Proficiency scheme, the Practical Child Pedestrian Safety Training scheme and Theatre in Education.

For post primary schools, we have developed a series of road safety lessons, presentations and education packs. These resources allow teachers to provide road safety lessons, involve students in discussions about aspects of road safety and ultimately encourage good road safety behaviours. RSEOS also provides support to schools which participate in the Motor Vehicle & Road Users Studies - a GCSE course which helps students prepare for driver training and the driving test and to become informed and responsible road users.

These resources are available on C2K, the ICT platform used by grant aided schools. Most of the information is also available on NI Direct, to cater for independent schools that do not have access to C2K and for other citizens.

My Department’s advertising campaigns also aim to change those attitudes and behaviours which lead to death and serious injury on our roads. The campaigns are data-led, research-led and psychology-led. The messages that they contain are relevant to all road users. However, as young people are significantly over-represented in the casualties, many of the ads highlight young people at risk – whether as drivers, passengers, pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists.