Seatbelt and mobile phone use surveys: 2023
Driver mobile phone use and seatbelt wearing rates for 2023.
Applies to England and Scotland
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This publication presents information about the proportion of drivers observed using a hand-held mobile phone and the proportion of drivers and passengers wearing seatbelts whilst driving in England, and separately in Scotland, from a roadside observation survey commissioned by the Department for Transport. Due to changes in the survey methodology, results are not directly comparable with previous surveys in 2021 and 2017.
These statistics show, for weekdays in England in autumn 2023:
- 0.3% of all vehicle drivers were observed using a mobile phone whilst driving (a similar proportion to that for Scotland based on data collected in early 2024)
- 97.6% of drivers were observed using a seatbelt (compared with 96.4% for Scotland)
- 95.2% of front seat passengers were observed using a seatbelt (compared with 95.7% for Scotland)
While seatbelt wearing rates remain high overall, the latest road casualty statistics for 2022 show that 21% of car occupant fatalities in reported road collisions in Great Britain were not wearing a seatbelt (table RAS0711). This indicates that car occupants who do not wear a seatbelt are disproportionately likely to be killed in road collisions.
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