Road Safety Strategy – Department for Transport, 2026

Delivering Public Benefit

Dr Phil Martin, TRL’s Head of Transport, said:

“We welcome the strategy’s strong emphasis on governance, transparency and public trust. Our cross-sector Advisory Group is helping to oversee this work, alongside a dedicated public and patient involvement strategy, to demonstrate how data is being used responsibly and for clear public benefit.

Insights from the analytical work of the DfT’s Road Safety Statistics team and TRL, will help to ensure that safety recommendations and policy are grounded in robust evidence that reflects real patient outcomes.”

All data is kept secure within the Wessex Secure Data Environment (SDE), with appropriate regulatory approvals and oversight of the research projects within the SDE, ensuring compliance with data protection law while enabling high-impact research.

Enabled by the Wessex SDE

A core priority for PRANA is to provide a joined up understanding of what happens from the moment a person is involved in a road traffic collision and across their subsequent health care. Being included in the National Road Safety Strategy validates this aspect of our mission and recognises the value of our approach to achieving secure, ethical data linkage across pre-hospital, hospital and transport settings.

Our current pilot phase is enabling us to demonstrate how linking datasets can generate insights that are not possible when police or health data are analysed in isolation, and will support future national expansion of the data system. This includes improving understanding of injury severity, identifying the circumstances that lead to the most serious harm, and assessing the wider impact of road traffic collisions on NHS services and patients.

Supporting our work going forward

Inclusion in the strategy provides a strong foundation for PRANA’s next phase of development. It supports our work by:

• Strengthening the case for sustained investment in linked road safety and health data
• Enabling closer collaboration across government, the NHS, academia and research organisations
• Providing a clear policy framework for secure, lawful and ethical data linkage
• Helping ensure that research insights translate into real-world safety improvements
• Paving the way for other disease and injury areas that could benefit from understanding the full care pathway

Looking ahead

PRANA’s inclusion in the National Road Safety Strategy is an important step forward in connecting road safety and health data in a meaningful way. It reinforces our commitment to working collaboratively across sectors to reduce road deaths and serious injuries, support the NHS, and build a stronger evidence base for prevention.

We look forward to continuing our work with partners across government, healthcare and research, and public. Finally, we would like to sincerely thank everyone who has contributed their time, expertise and commitment to making this progress possible.