I doubt it. This Government is not one for doing anything and it will hopefully be put out of our misery in the next 18 months. There has been a campaign about it, so they're just making noises to pretend they care. Not that governments of any colour give a toss about anyone but themselves, but they must be seen to care so they can get more votes next time.

Indeed. Sensible ideas (I'm not saying this is, just generally) that politicians then have to do a lot of research on and then steadfastly /robustly defend are rarely popular with them, as they mostly want quick soundbite 'easy wins' (the 24 hr news cycle) and short term 'fixes' that mostly are very bad, especially in the long term.

As regards restrictions on young and new drivers (and motorcyclists), I would strongly advocate for significant restrictions on the cars / bikes they can buy / lease and use, in terms of performance and perhaps in some degree, size/weight, due to their lack of proven experience and likelihood of having accident being higher than older, more experienced road users.

I would also tie such restrictions to whether they don't have any fault claims of significance in number or type (weighted). TBH this could be done throughout a lifetime, but more weighted at the start of their driving / riding lifetime, and perhaps in old age where some find it much more difficult to get to grips with what they previously found easy (as my dad is now experiencing).

I can understand why restrictions on new/younger drivers on who/how many passengers they can take should also be considered, as like many here, I can relate stories in my youth of friends 'showing off' driving rather recklessly just because their 'mates' were in the car.

A former neighbour of mine (in his late 20-early 30s) was very nice and reasonable whilst on his own / just with his girlfriend in the day, but give him access to alcohol and/or put him in a room of friends and he regularly turned into a nasty, oaf who didn't give a **** about anyone else. Similarly with a teenager who was fine on his own, but a right tearaway in the company of his local chums.

Peer pressure, perhaps? Mainly affects younger blokes (though many a middle aged man and increasing numbers of women too).

Another potential law with the best of intentions, but ultimately daft.

Main issue is enforcement. Will the police stop vehicles with more than one person in in case the driver is too young. Unlikely!!

It also denies the young, many of whom are low paid and/or in education the opportunity to car share for university, college, job etc. It would be an expensive and unwarranted barrier.

Perhaps, though your opinion here seems to be very much at odds to it on the changeover to EVs, which appears to have the effect of pushing most of the less well-off off the road entirely via car prices / costs going through the roof. I should note that back in the 1990s (and likely a lot before), almost all college students - even at more 'rural' colleges, mostly relied on public transport (myself included) because we couldn't afford to buy/run a car (especially the insurance).

The main issue I was referring to was of 17 and 18 year-olds - new drivers still at school, 'having a larf' whizzing round in their modded Saxo etc on a Friday/Saturday night.

Such things can easily end in tragedy, something I sadly have know myself having one classmate in 6th form die in such sircumstances (the other classmate writing off his dad's BMW), and one (who I knew from a very early age and knew her brother) who died in an accident in a (old school) fully-laden Mini on the A1, though not a fault accident like the other.

Both were front seat passengers and thus had no control over what happened to them.

I agree that enforcement would be difficult (though not impossible), but obviously any significant transgression of the road laws would be an excuse to make more of the incident if the driver was also breaking any laws about either what they were driving and/or who else was in the car.

If the law is not enforced, then mates will continue to get lifts and some of the mindless will continue to drive with less than 100% care and consideration. It is the mindless who are most likely to ignore the law anyway.

18-25 year olds are so convinced of their personal driving ability that accident, injury or death do not figure as a concern. That an insurance company may refuse their claim in the event of the implausible is academic.

True, true. At least if the law was clear on what was and what wasn't allowed (the use of wht performence of vehicle would be far better and easier to enforce / prevent a reasonable amount of transgressions [via insurance] than determining who/how many were in the car with a new driver, then perhaps some benefit could be derived.

Hitting transgressors in the pocket and VERY publicly is, I think, the best way of getting society to change their behaviour - as long as it's done ethically / fairly, which isn't always the case these days with the Police and CPS.

After all, drink driving has been reduced significantly since the high point of the 1970s / 80s by both public information campaigns to stigmatise it (rather like smoking) and, to a degree, a reasonable amount of enforcement (though not as much as I would like).

Harsher penalties for motoring offences including more use of disqualification would do a lot to weed out the bad drivers on our roads.

a) bad drivers need to be caught first: locally we suffer offroad bikes and quadbikes driving at stupid speeds in 30 limits, no number plates (probably no insurance or even valid licence) so no chance of being punished. No routine traffic patrols, lots of cop cars parked up by the HQ.

b) Disqualification doesn't seem to stop bad drivers from driving, far too many fined/suspended sentence, jails full so sending there is, I understand, discouraged by guidance from above to magistrates who would otherwise impose custodial sentences. This is also the case with many violent offenders, repeat offenders etc. Naturally, cops are really annoyed when their efforts result in a mere slap on the wrist

Criminals don't even fall down stairs at police stations as they used to in the bad (?) old days