UKROEd, the organisation responsible for managing and administering the National Speed Awareness Course on behalf of the police services of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, welcomes the recently-published Ipsos MORI report which shows that targeting the behaviour of motorists through these courses reduced the likelihood of reoffending within six months by up to 23 per cent.
The report also showed that over a period of three years, taking part in the course was more effective at reducing speed reoffending than a fine and penalty points.
A UKROEd spokesperson said:
“We are very pleased with the evaluation of the National Speed Awareness Course provided by the Ipsos MORI team of independent researchers and analysts. This shows that the courses were more effective over a three-year period at reducing speed than a fixed penalty notice (with a fine and points).
“We have always thought that the course was successful in successfully bringing about a change in driver behaviour, so it is good to have this confirmed by robust, independent evaluation.
“People who attend such a course are also less likely to commit further speeding offences than those who opt to pay a fine and have points on their licences.”
The report is based on data provided for 2.2 million drivers using records made available by 13 police forces in England for the period 2012 to 2017. Of these, 1.4 million had accepted an offer to participate in the National Speed Awareness Course.
For more details, please visit www.ndors.org.uk
About the study
- The evaluation brought together records of speed and other driving offences associated with 2.2 million drivers who were detected driving at speeds faster than statutory limits in 13 police force areas between 2012 and 2017.
- These police forces volunteered to take part in the study following an invitation to all 41 forces offering the course and together they cover a range of metropolitan and rural regions in England, with the majority having adopted the NSAC before September 2009.
- These offence and offender details were then linked to records held by the Department for Transport describing injury collisions reported to the police.
- All variables marked as personal data, including gender, age and home postcode, were removed from the data by DVLA before being transferred to Ipsos MORI via the DfT. This was done to ensure the compliance of the project with the data protection agreements and reflects the importance of data confidentiality to the project.
- Copies of the study, published today, are available for download from the Department for Transport website.
About the course
- The National Speed Awareness Course is offered to drivers at the discretion of each local police force.
- UKROEd manages and administers the National Speed Awareness Course, and other driver education courses for low-end offenders across the UK.
- It is not offered to those who have already taken part in the course within the preceding three years.
- It is currently used by 41 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales, to equip drivers with a better understanding of speed limits, the benefits of driving within them, and the consequences of speeding.
Mark Salisbury
( Wednesday, May 23, 2018 - 08:41 )
I will be happy to include a piece from the ABD if they can provide me with similarly compelling evidence and study to back up their accusations of conflict of interest and that the Speed Awareness courses do not provide any benefit.
Terry Hudson
( Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - 15:59 )
I see the unknown ‘spokesperson’ from UKROEd did not want their name printed?
Is this because all those private companies with the snouts in this
Speed Awareness Course trough, have as directors, serving or retired police officers, including members of the Crown Prosecution Service and those that are in the so called Road Safety industry?
So no conflict of interest?
Roger Lawson
( Wednesday, May 16, 2018 - 08:27 )
This is the key statement in the Executive Summary of the IPSOS-MORI report: “this study did not find that participation in NSAC [National Speed Awareness Courses] had a statistically significant effect on the number or severity of injury collisions”.
In other words, as the Alliance of British Drivers has repeatedly said, this unethical and legally dubious diversion of drivers to speed awareness courses is primarily about generating money, not about road safety because there is no evidence of any real benefit. Indeed drivers who have attended such courses might be interested in another statement in the report: “the NSAC was not designed to reduce the incidence of collisions”. So what exactly is the objective one might ask as it appears not to be focussed on improving road safety?
UKROED, who have a financial interest in the matter, have picked out that there is a slight reduction in reoffending rates but that may simply be that drivers take more care to avoid reoffending as one cannot take a second education course within 3 years.