WOMEN ARE THE BETTER DRIVERS, STUDY CLAIMS

The authors of a new study claim to have finally settled the age-old debate about whether men or women make better drivers. there search analysed insurance, crime and driving test statistics to argue that women are better drivers than men. In a report that is bound to stir up debate around the country, Confused.com says the data shows women take slightly longer to learn to drive but commit fewer motoring offences, have fewer accidents and cost insurers less when they do make a claim.

Statistics gathered from Ministry of Justice data, the DVLA and Confused’s own records, show that men are almost four times more likely to commit a motoring offence than women. In total, more than 585,000 drivers in England and Wales were taken to court for breaking the law on the road in 2017, of which 79 per cent were men. In the six most common offences men were consistently the biggest culprits. Almost one in four (23 per cent) of all offences were men speeding compared with just one in 15 (seven per cent) where women were charged with the same offence. Men also outweighed women five to one when it came to drink-driving offences, and two to one for driving without tax or insurance.

With such a litany of lawbreaking it should perhaps be no surprise that men also make more claims on their car insurance and tend to beat fault more of the time. In 2017, two out of three (65 percent) insuranceclaims were made by men, of which 17 per cent were for incidents where the claimant was at fault. In comparison, in the 35 per cent of claims made by women around half as many (nine per cent) were at fault. And when men do claim their bills tend to be more slightly more expensive – with the average claim by am an standingat £3,271 compared with the £3,121 for the average woman. The report suggests this could at least be down to the value of the cars rather than the severity of the accidents, with research showing men own cars with an average value of £8,654 compared with £7,090 for women. Gender pay gap The report’s authors say that the data explains why men still pay more for their insurance even after the EU Gender Directive of 2012 outlawed rating drivers solely on their gender. They say insurers have had to become cleverer about how they analyse the risk of a driver making a claim, rather than relying on gender as a default .

The latest data shows men pay an average £92 more than women for their annual policies – down from £120 last year but still higher than the £27 difference that followed the directive’s introduction.

Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, says: “As a female racing driver, I know women can hold their own when it comes to driving, and data suggests that they are in fact safer on the roads.

“This is reflected in the fact that they are paying almost £100 less for their premiums. And this could be down to the fact that more men committed more motoring offences in comparison to women. Not only this, but they also often own more expensive cars, which means claims are likely to be more expensive.