Inexperience of driving on the left traffic collision statistics: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for Under the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland) 2002, I would like to request the following information:

Data separated by year for 2019/2020/2021/2022/2023/2024 and 2025 as of August 18 regarding the following points:

1. The number of collisions caused by "inexperience of driving on the left"

2. How many fatal accidents were caused by collisions involving "inexperience of driving on the left"

3. How many collisions took place in each local authority area.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The following tables show the information we hold in respect of collisions where ‘inexperience of driving on the left’ was recorded as a potential contributory factor to the collision.

The records we hold relate to collisions where someone is injured or killed, and which become known to Police Scotland. Therefore, we do not hold records relating to damage-only collisions.

Please note that any figures for 2024 and 2025 are provisional as they are based on monthly returns received thus far from Police Scotland, with the most recent returns being received on 13th August 2025. This may be an incomplete picture of collisions up to that date due to a slight lag between collisions occurring and records being processed and shared by Police Scotland. These figures are also subject to change due to subsequent corrections and late records.

Please also note that from November 2023 onwards police forces across Great Britain, including Police Scotland, have been making changes to how they record contributory factor information.

Following a review of the data collected by police about personal injury collisions, forces have been transitioning to the use of a different, reduced set of contributory factors, known as Road Safety Factors. It is not possible to systematically identify collisions where ‘inexperience of driving on the left’ contributed to the collision using Road Safety Factors. This is because there is no direct equivalent of the ‘inexperience of driving on the left’ contributory factor amongst the new Road Safety Factors.

As a result of the transition to the use of Road Safety Factors, since November 2023 collisions have either been recorded using contributory factors or the new Road Safety Factors. This has resulted in data still being available on ‘inexperience of driving on the left’ for only some collisions.

In years prior to 2023, all collisions were recorded using contributory factors, in 2023 it was approximately 90% of collisions, in 2024 it was approximately 50%, and for 2025 so far it is approximately 15%. The figures below for 2023, 2024 and 2025 regarding ‘inexperience of driving on the left’ are therefore affected by the transition to the new approach to recording contributory factor information.

Injury collisions where ‘inexperience of driving on the left’ recorded as contributory factor
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
33	4	6	24	34	14	0

Fatal injury collisions where ‘inexperience of driving on the left’ recorded as contributory factor
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
4	2	0	3	1	0	0

Injury collisions where ‘inexperience of driving on the left’ recorded as contributory factor, by Local Authority
	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Aberdeen City	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	4	0	0	1	2	1	0
Angus	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Argyll & Bute	5	0	0	2	5	2	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Dundee City	0	0	2	0	1	0	0
East Ayrshire	1	0	1	0	1	0	0
East Renfrewshire	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	1	0	1	2	0	2	0
Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Fife	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Glasgow City	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Highland	12	2	1	7	13	4	0
Moray	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Perth & Kinross	1	0	0	6	2	1	0
Scottish Borders	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
South Lanarkshire	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
Stirling	2	0	1	2	2	2	0
West Dunbartonshire	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	33	4	6	24	34	14	0

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.