160. A combination of driving experience, age and attitude is thought to promote safe driving. Whilst the Department for Transport, and its partners, have had success in reducing road casualties over the past decade, the same success has not been achieved for novice drivers. Measures implemented to date, have had only marginal impact on this problem. We therefore urge the Department to be bold in adopting measures which will have a real impact on reducing these deaths and serious injuries. The Department for Transport has a central responsibility to tackle novice driver casualties, using all the tools available. We wish to see action in the following areas:

• The evidence demonstrating the scale of novice driver casualties is clear. The Department must now respond to this evidence by implementing measures which will reduce the risks novice drivers face and pose. The Department has published little research on the impact of changes made to the driver training and testing regimes over the past decade. This research must be published promptly.
• The driver training regime needs to be modernised as a matter of urgency. A more structured learning programme—with a minimum learning period, ongoing assessment, and mandatory group theory and self-assessment training—should be supported by more effective testing and post-test regimes. We understand that the Department is due to consult on such reforms: it must be prepared to implement these changes quickly—too much time has already passed since its last consultation on this subject in 2002.
• A graduated licensing system should be introduced which places restrictions on novice drivers to reduce the risks they face and pose. The impacts should be carefully monitored by the Department. There is a risk that making it more difficult to obtain a driving licence will encourage more people to drop out of the system altogether and drive unlicensed. The level of unlicensed driving is already alarming. The Department for Transport should assess the risk that any changes to the training and testing regime will lead to an increase in licensing offences. The Home Office and the police must make enforcement of licensing offences, and disqualified driving, a real priority. Serious driving offences should be included in the "offences brought to justice" target for the police.
• The Department for Transport must do more to improve road safety education, and driver education in particular. Closer liaison between the Department for Transport and the Department for Children, Schools and Families is required to ensure that education programmes target people at a young age, in order to begin to change attitudes towards driving. The Departments should work together to put road safety and driver education in the National Curriculum. The Department must provide more support to local authorities delivering driver education programmes. These programmes should be based on empirical evidence of what works. The Department should monitor and research which types of scheme have most impact in terms of reducing casualties, and disseminate the results widely.