Scheme background
The National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme originated from a recommendation made by Dr Peter North (Sir Peter North) in his Road Traffic Law Review of 1988. This report, commissioned by the Department of Transport, made many recommendations that are now part and parcel of normal enforcement.
The general philosophy is that motorists may be offered a course as an alternative to enforcement sanctions, only where their driving may have amounted to a lapse of concentration or an error of judgement, with no serious consequences or high risk.
The police developed the policy behind NDORS and the scheme is operated on behalf of the police, who recognise the value of trying to change how people drive rather than imposing a fine and licence penalty points for traffic offences.
The Scheme has grown considerably in recent years, and now involves more than one million clients each year. Because of this, it was deemed necessary to develop UKROEd, a company with its own board of directors, to ensure robust governance of the scheme.
Targeting Behaviour
The name UKROEd is derived from United Kingdom Road Offender Education – emphasising the focus we place on the education and training of drivers who commit certain specific traffic offences across the UK.
A report by Ipsos MORI in 2018 showed that targeting the behaviour of motorists through the courses provided by UKROEd reduced the likelihood of reoffending within six months by up to 23 per cent. The report also showed that over a period of three years, taking part in the course was more effective at reducing speed reoffending than a fine and penalty points.
The report is based on data provided for 2.2 million drivers using records made available by 13 police forces in England for the period 2012 to 2017. Of these, 1.4 million had accepted an offer to participate in the National Speed Awareness Course.
The Functions of UKROEd
The functions of UKROEd are:
- to develop courses
- to quality assure trainers and providers
- to enable members of the public to choose where they would like to attend a course
- to disburse course fees paid by members of the public attending course
- to recoup the administration costs incurred by course providers and police enforcement activities.
UKROEd provide the central governance, standards and consistency of the police NDORS scheme (National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme). The role of UKROEd is to assist police forces to offer high-quality courses, consistently in all force areas, so as to change behaviour and play an important part in the reduction of collisions, death and injury to road users.
Road Safety Trust
UKROEd is the not-for-profit trading subsidiary company wholly owned by The Road Safety Trust.
The Road Safety Trust is an independent grant-giving trust supporting projects and research that make UK roads safer for all road users – pedestrians, cyclists, mobility scooter users, car drivers, lorry and van drivers, and motorcyclists.
The Road Safety Trust support a variety of road safety initiatives through grants, with funding available towards projects that meet the grant criteria. Grants are available for up to two or three years, and these can range from £10,000 up to £200,000 depending on the funding round.
Through the operation of the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme and education of road offenders, UKROEd carry out primary-purpose trading for the charity to help meet its charitable objectives. While UKROEd has run for more than 20 years, UKROEd’s current governance structures were only established in 2016 after the Road Safety Trust was created as its parent charity.
