Transport Scotland’s Road Safety Framework Fund is financing a project led by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety called The Young Driver Insurance Safety Framework. It will explore how motor insurance can help reduce crashes involving young drivers and their passengers.

Companies involved in the project include: Confused.com, Agilysis, Defaqto and Angelica Solutions, as well as researchers Dr Neale Kinnear (Affective Mobility) and Dr Elizabeth Box (ECM Research Solutions) and road safety communications specialist Rebecca Morris (Vision Zero Communications).

The focus of the project will be on telematics motor insurance and its ability to measure driving behaviours, incentivise better driving standards and deliver improved safety outcomes.

It will run a feasibility study until August 2027 and will develop and test a safety assessment framework and prototype rating system. It will then recommend how the approach could be used more widely.

Jamie Hassall, executive director of PACTS, said: “The strength of this project is the expertise coming together. Road safety researchers, behavioural scientists, insurance and consumer specialists each bring a different perspective. Working together allows us to connect robust evidence with how insurance policies are designed, used and chosen by families.

“Price understandably matters to young drivers and their families, but it can be harder to judge how effectively a policy supports safer driving. We want to test whether a safety rating could make that support easier to recognise and compare, helping families make informed choices and encouraging improvements across the market.

“Insurance companies recognise the risk of young drivers and are keen to play their part in a safe system to help reduce the risks young drivers face and help them develop as safe and competent drivers.”

In Great Britain in 2025, 269 people were killed and 4,466 seriously injured in collisions involving car drivers aged 17-24.