Road safety statistics: guidance
Guide to reported road casualty statistics including notes and definitions, quality and methodology information and supporting technical documents.
The road casualty statistics are based on data reported by police using the STATS19 data collection system. This page provides background information on the statistics and STATS19.
Coverage and definitions
Details of what is and is not included in the statistics and the main definitions used are available from the:
Quality and methodology
Quality
Information related to the quality of the statistics can be found from the:
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Background quality report which provides an overview
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Known data issues page which lists specific issues
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Revisions page which outlines changes to previously published figures
More in-depth analysis of the quality of specific aspects of the STATS19 casualty data can be found in the:
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Comparison of STATS19 data to other sources of road safety data report
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Exploring the impact of online reporting of road casualties report
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Contributory factors: comparison with post-investigation recording report
Methodology
Methodology documents for specific elements of the road casualty statistics can be found in the:
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Valuation of road collisions and casualties report and 1994 methodology paper
Older methodology papers for aspects of the statistics that are no longer routinely updated are available from the methodology papers page.
Data collection
The latest specification for the STATS19 data collection is the 2024 specification. Documentation for this is available in the:
Older copies of these documents (for the previous specification) are available from the:
User engagement
Periodic reviews of the STATS19 collection are overseen by the Standing Committee on Road Injury Collision Statistics (SCRICS). Details of the latest (2018) review of STATS19 (PDF, 296 KB) and the resulting recommendations (PDF, 2.23 MB) are available with a summary of progress in implementing these recommendations in the following section.
We welcome feedback on these statistics which can be provided to roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk. A summary of recent feedback and responses can be found on the:
Planned developments
A summary of planned changes to the road safety statistics, and other development work, which will be updated periodically, is available on the:
Data protection and privacy
The underlying STATS19 data contains some fields that are considered sensitive as they may identify individuals or assign individual blame in collisions. We do not routinely publish these data but they can be requested by approved researchers via the form below.
STATS19 data personal information and data protection information.
Official accredited statistics status
These are accredited official statistics which comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Further details are available via the:
Updates to this page
Published 29 September 2022Last updated 28 November 2024 + show all updates
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Updated with new structure and sensitive data request form added.
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2022 reported road casualties Great Britain published.
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First published.