Official Statistics

Mobile phone use by drivers: Great Britain, 2021

Published 28 July 2022

About this release

This release provides an overview of the proportion of drivers observed using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving in Great Britain, from a roadside observation survey carried out in autumn 2021, with links to related information including self-reported use.

While observations were made at the same sites as in the previous 2017 survey, a different, video-based observation method was used in 2021. Results are therefore not directly comparable.

Headline figures

These statistics show, for weekdays in 2021:

• in Great Britain, 1.0% of drivers were observed using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving, with 0.6% observed holding the phone to their ear and 0.4% holding the phone in their hand

• in England and Wales, 1.0% of drivers were observed using a mobile phone whilst driving (to ear or in hand), compared to 0.9% of drivers in Scotland

• in Great Britain, 1.9% of van drivers were observed using a mobile phone whilst driving, compared to 0.8% of car drivers

• males, and drivers estimated as aged 17 to 29, were more likely to be observed using a mobile phone while driving than females and drivers estimated as being aged 60 or over respectively

Comparisons with the previous survey should be made with caution in view of changes in the survey methodology. The 2021 figure of 0.8% for car (including taxi and private hire vehicle) drivers in England and Wales compares with an equivalent figure of 0.6% for 2017.

Things you need to know

Context

Research has shown that using a hand-held mobile phone while driving is a distraction, and increases the risk of the driver crashing. This is one of a number of potential driver distractions.

Background

Since 2002 the Department for Transport has commissioned surveys of driver mobile phone use. The results of the mobile phone survey can be used to assess compliance with the legislation in Great Britain. These observational surveys, conducted every 4 or 5 years, compliment self-reported phone use while driving from the Crime Survey for England and Wales reported more regularly, and more in-depth research.

Definition

Within this report, a hand-held mobile phone (or mobile phone) is used to mean a hand-held device that is being held by the driver at the time of observation. The driver may be receiving or making a call, texting or reading a text, or using it for some other interactive function. It was not possible for observers to determine what the mobile phone was being used for, but a distinction was made between drivers holding the phone to their ear or holding it in their hand. No data was collected on hands-free use of mobile phones whilst driving.

Methodology

Observations of driver mobile phone use were made from video captured at a total of 90 stationary and moving traffic sites across England, Scotland and Wales. Sites were surveyed once on a weekday (either morning or afternoon) with some also surveyed on weekends. The majority of figures related to mobile phone use are based on moving sites. Further details are in the quality and methodology section and the accompanying technical report.

Coverage

Results are presented for weekdays and moving traffic sites (as defined in the quality and methods section below) to ensure the results are comparable as possible with previous surveys. Further figures are available in the accompanying data tables.

Overall phone use while driving

In 2021, 1.0% all of drivers were observed using a mobile phone whilst driving on weekdays in Great Britain. For car drivers the equivalent figure was 0.8%.

In 2021, rates of phone use by drivers were estimated to be slightly lower in Scotland than England and Wales. This differs from the previous survey in 2017, when rates for Scotland were higher, though in 2014 rates were similar for England and Scotland. This could reflect the nature of the observational survey (which as a sample survey is subject to random variation and where the survey method has changed between surveys).

Chart 1: Hand-held mobile phone use by country, 2021

Over a longer time period, trends can be monitored most consistently for car drivers (including taxi and private hire vehicle drivers) for England and Wales. In broad terms, driver phone use has tended to fall following legislative changes, and then increase. Bearing in mind the changes in survey methodology, the change between 2017 and 2021 should be interpreted with caution. The latest survey was carried out in October 2021, ahead of recent changes to the legislation from March 2022.

Chart 2: Hand-held mobile phone use by car drivers, England (2002 to 2014), England and Wales (2017 and 2021). These figures also include taxi and private hire vehicles for consistency over time. The 2021 figure was 0.8% compared to 0.6% in 2017.

Various changes in the methodology and geographical coverage of the survey sites mean that figures are not directly comparable between years and so changes should be interpreted with caution. Additionally, these are estimates from a sample of vehicles observed and therefore subject to sampling error (which has not been calculated here).

Data on self-reported driver mobile phone use is collected as part of the Crime Survey for England and Wales. The latest figures are for 2019 to 2020. Overall, 46.9% of drivers reported using a mobile phone while driving though this was mostly via Bluetooth, voice command or a dashboard holder, with 6.4% reporting using a phone in their hand. The equivalent figures for the previous year were 42.1% and 5.5% respectively.

By vehicle type

In 2021, the proportion of van drivers using a phone (1.9%) was nearly double that for car drivers (0.8%). This was a similar pattern to the previous surveys in 2017 and 2014.

The highest proportion of drivers using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving in 2021 was for heavy goods vehicles (2.2%). However, the number of vehicles other than cars and vans observed was relatively low (for example, only 472 taxi or private hire vehicles were observed in a total sample of 26,497) so that these proportions can fluctuate more across surveys, and results should be interpreted with caution.

Chart 3: Hand-held mobile phone use by vehicle type, Great Britain, 2021

By sex and age

In 2021, a higher proportion of male drivers (1.2%) were observed using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving than female drivers (0.8%). For car drivers, the proportions were broadly similar (0.9% compared to 0.8%).

Amongst all drivers and car drivers, the highest proportion of drivers observed using a mobile phone in Great Britain estimated as aged 17 to 29 with a much lower proportion observed for those estimated 60 or older.

The difficulties in estimation of age group or sex should be kept in mind. In particular, the proportion of older drivers observed in the 2021 survey was lower than in previous surveys, and this may have impacted on the results shown here.

Chart 4: Hand-held mobile phone use by sex and age group, Great Britain, 2021

However, these findings are broadly in line with previous surveys, and with self-reported mobile phone use as collected via the Crime Survey for England and Wales RAS51106 which show that, based on all phone use while driving (including via Bluetooth, voice control or a dashboard holder, as well as in hand) that for the year 2019 to 2020, 49.7% of males reported using a mobile while driving, compared to 43.8% of females.

The same data showed 59.5% of those aged 25 to 29 reported using a phone while driving, compared to 36.3% of those aged 50 and over.

Other variables

A range of other variables were captured in the observational survey. The main points are summarised here, with further detail in the accompanying data tables.

Presence of passengers. Driver mobile phone use was observed to be lower with passengers present at 0.5% of all drivers for Great Britain, compared with 1.2% where no passengers were observed. This is in line with previous surveys.

Road type. In general, the proportion of drivers observed using a mobile phone was higher for minor roads (1.3% of all drivers in Great Britain) compared to major roads (0.8%). Overall, there was little difference between urban and rural roads except for van drivers, where proportions of drivers using phones on rural roads was notably higher than for urban roads (2.7% compared with 0.9%). There are some differences here compared to previous surveys which may reflect changes in traffic patterns post-pandemic, random variation or changes to survey methodology.

Day of week. Headline statistics in this release relate to weekdays for comparability with earlier years. However, some sites were observed at weekends to enable comparisons to be made. In Great Britain as whole, there was little difference in the proportion of drivers using a hand-held mobile phone use on weekends compared to weekdays in 2021.

Related information

Self-reported mobile phone use while driving

These statistics are based on observation of driver mobile phone use. Other evidence is available from surveys of self-reported mobile phone use, including the Crime Survey for England and Wales (see data table RAS51105).

More in-depth ad-hoc surveys are also conducted to support policy development, for example research into the use of mobile phones while driving carried out in 2022.

Attitudes to mobile phone use while driving

The National Travel Attitudes Survey (NTAS) includes a series of questions related to road safety topics, including mobile phone use. In the latest wave of the survey, most respondents reported a good understanding of the law on mobile phone use while driving.

Mobile phone use as a contributory factor in collisions

Data on contributory factors in reported personal injury road collisions is published annually as data tables alongside the Reported Road Casualties Great Britain report.

In 2020, 17 people were killed and 499 injured in road traffic collisions in Great Britain where the driver was using a mobile phone (table RAS50007). This compares with 55 deaths and 3,119 injuries in collisions where ‘distraction in vehicle’ was recorded as a contributory factor.

It should be noted that figures for contributory factors relate to collisions where a police officer attended the scene and recorded at least one factor, which in their judgement, contributed to the collision. It may be difficult for a police officer to identify certain factors that may have contributed to a collision after it has occurred, which should be kept in mind when interpreting these figures, which could be underestimates.

Mobile phone offences

Statistics on prosecutions for mobile phone offences are included in the ‘motoring data tool’ published annually by the Ministry of Justice as part of their criminal court statistics.

In 2021, there were 6,200 prosecutions for ‘using or causing others to use a handheld mobile phone whilst driving’. This number has fallen steadily over the last decade, from 31,400 in 2011.

Quality and methodology

Comparison with previous surveys

Observational surveys of mobile phone used have been carried out since 2002, with a reduced frequency from 2009 onwards. Over this period the survey methodology including areas sampled and sites selected has changed several times, though all surveys up to 2017 were based on roadside observation.

For the 2021 survey, a video-based approach was used in an attempt to modernise the collection method. Rather than roadside observation, cameras were located in fixed positions at survey sites and the resulting video analysed at a later stage. While this used the same survey sites and collected the same data, there were some differences compared with the previous approach meaning that results are not directly comparable.

For the mobile phone surveys, results are based on moving sites, those where observations are made of moving vehicles in traffic. For these sites, there are different challenges for each method – roadside observers may not have much time to observe a passing vehicle, whereas video analysts can slow down and pause tape. However, video analysis can be affected by, for example, weather conditions affecting quality of images captured. While the two approaches were not directly compared, we would expect observation to be broadly comparable.

Additional data is collected for driver phone use at stationary sites (located at traffic light junctions). This was previously used to estimate driver age and presence of passengers not possible at moving sites. However, this is less necessary for video-based analysis where equivalent analysis can be done regardless of site type (though in general estimation of age and sex appears to be more difficult using video).

Results for stationary sites are not considered here. Drivers’ mobile phone use whilst stationary at a junction may not be representative of their general use whilst driving. For roadside observation, higher rates at stationary sites seen in previous surveys may be due to drivers believing it is safer to use a hand-held mobile phone in stationary traffic or wrongly thinking it is legal to use a hand-held mobile phone whilst stationary.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths. These observational studies provide an indication of the extent of mobile phone use by drivers in traffic at any one time, rather than relying on self-reporting. They allow any large changes in driver phone use to be detected and allow monitoring of broad trends over time contributing to understanding the scale of driver phone use.

The video-based approach used in 2021 has the advantage of allowing cross-checking for quality assurance, particularly for observations of non-compliance. As a result, it is less likely that there are false observations of phone use.

Limitations. Caution is required in interpretation of these results. Overall a relatively small proportion of vehicles were observed which means results are subject to sample variation, particularly for smaller subsets (for example, particular vehicle types). In addition, observer judgement is required – either at the roadside or, in 2021, for video analysis.

In general, smaller changes or differences between groups should be interpreted carefully and the value of the survey is in detecting larger changes for bigger subgroups at national level. This is likely to mask genuine differences at local level. The observation method also means results are limited to daylight hours, which does not provide information on non-compliance during evening and night, which may be different.

For some sites and sessions in 2021, the quality of video was not sufficient for robust analysis (for example due to weather conditions affecting visibility or the location of the camera limiting what could be observed). Other sites were over-sampled to account for this and survey weights adjusted accordingly.

There is also evidence that the proportion of female and, particularly, older drivers was lower in the 2021 survey, and the vehicle mix was also somewhat different (with fewer taxis observed). While this could reflect changes in the traffic mix compared with previous surveys and post-pandemic, it is likely that the nature of the observation method had an impact.

Background information

Legislation on mobile phone use whilst driving

In December 2003, legislation was introduced making it illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving or riding a motor vehicle on the road. Drivers caught using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving may be issued with a fixed penalty notice with points on the driving licence and a fine.

In February 2007, the penalty for using a mobile phone whilst driving increased from a £30 fine to a £60 fine and 3 driving licence points. These fines increased to £100 in 2013 and then again to £200 and 6 penalty points in March 2017, with a maximum fine of £1,000 (£2,500 if driving a lorry or bus) if the case goes to court. If a case goes to court, the driver or rider may be disqualified from driving or riding.

Drivers or riders can use hands-free phones, sat navs and 2-way radios when driving or riding. However, if the police think the driver or rider is distracted and not in control of their vehicle they could still get stopped and penalised. Further information on the law on using a mobile phone whilst driving can be found in the legislation and on GOV.UK.

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