What will the extra tests do and what will the extra lessons do? Reversing round corners and parallel parking are not the things that are killing people (If that's what you are trying to prevent). I never ever see the rationale behind these proposals from incompetent politicians. Getting a 17 year old to be aware of the consequences of their actions is going to be hard, and if you can do that for car driving by having them do more training then brilliant.

Remember when they put a dog that chased sheep in with a ram; it didn;t chase sheep again. The training needs to be effective, and that means the trainers need to be good.

We need to stop reacting to these statistics blindly, how many of those deaths were caused by drinking/drugs; how many by drivers who are going to do this regardless of what they are taught? You could do something that's effective now instead of worrying about if you touch the kerb on a 3 point turn.

Peter Downing, London, UK

As an ADI it does concern me when I read comments such as introducing modules to cover Parallel parking, Driving at speed and Night driving, what do people think we now ! Parallel Parking is one of the 4 manoeuvres pupils are currently required to perform, long with a Turn-in-the Road, Reverse Left around a corner and Reversing into a Parking Bay. Forcing young people to do 50, 75, or 100 hours of tuition when they have proved themselves ready for a Driving test after say 40 hours would achieve very little, apart from a bored pupil and a Driving Instructor trying to retain their attention for the next however number of houds/lessons. Make "Pass Plus" compulsory, withholding their full licence or granting only a intermediate licence until all the modules are complete.

MARTIN THOMAS PYATT, Leicester5,

Mr Fitzpatrick again meddling in matters he neither comprehends nor knows how to improve.
Yes, youngsters are a danger unto themselves.
Let us for a moment consider the lunacy of being tested to control a lethal weapon at the age of 17, one year AFTER they are deemed responsible enough to marry without parental consent, and one year BEFORE they are considered old enough to be permitted to buy alcohol.
Then, they pass the HPT (a sad, but expensive joke) then the Practical Driving Test. They believe they are invincible, they need no further discipline. (Unless you consider the purile Pass +)
No further test of ability to drive EVER!
How about- pass practical test-
6 months to show continued improvement, re-test.
THEN re-test for everybody every 4 years if you pass with flying colours- or seen again in 3 months if your driving is of concern.
Have you ever sat next to a scary driver?
Ever thought they should be removed from driving BEFORE they kill someone?
Regular tests for all.

Keith, watford,

I think the government should put more resources into policing the roads rather than making it harder for young people to get a license. The number of irresponsible and incompetent drivers who are clearly older than 20 is astounding. Bad driving habits cost lives, not poor training in isolation. Look at the whole problem.

Phil, Dover, Kent

Soon only the well off will be able to obtain a driving licence, the drones in society will have to get to work, hospital etc by public transport. Pity our public transport is so unreliable and bus routes are often cut. Why is it that it is always the less well off who have to suffer, those making the decisions wont be affected, their kids will have their lessons etc paid for by mummy and daddy, it is the working class kids who mostly have to save hard themselves to get a licence, this increase is just another tax on the working class. There will always be a minority of idiots who race cars and act like morons behind the wheel, these are the ones who need to feel the strong arm of the law and not the majority of sensible kids out there.

Patricia Kenny, B13 1BH, Uk

This may well go too far and mean that people won't bother to get a licence, having the opposite effect to that intended.

Sarah Baker, Essex, UK

Why should not owning a car wreck the employment prospects of young people? Cars and congestion are ripping the heart out of our communities and we need urgent investment and support for alternative methods of transport so that people have a choice not to drive.

gary, Cheshire,

Is interesting to see that young people like Ron from Derby also think that the UK has become one huge bloated nanny state.
Driving standards have improved by light years over the last 20 years and you actually see very few young people driving like lunatics in clapped out old cars nowadays.
This is another example of a government that has nothing better to do with parliamentary time because most if not all of the big decisions are made by Brussels.
We desperately need less regulations and less everyday bureaucratic hassle in this country unless we want to see even more of our meagre salaries being indirectly siphoned off by Government inspired job creation schemes.

GP, Manchester, UK

How about introducing some sort of engine size or power restrictions on young and new drivers in the same way there has been for motorcyclists for many years now ?
Let's face it ALL cars & bikes are more than powerful enough in the hands of an inexperienced driver/rider. ALL will travel at well over the 70 mph maximum speed on ANY road in the UK and ALL are capable of killing driver/rider, passenger/pillion, or others at as slow as 30 or 40 mph

Sensible rider, Leicester,

So at last someone has agreed with the findings of Dr. Jeremy Boughton’s report ‘Car occupant and motorcycle deaths 1994-2000’, or they just read it? Given that the DoT commissioned it, I can only wonder why Gweneth Dunwoody’s working group then had to go off and try to convince us that speed cameras work.

Dr. Jeremy Boughton’s report highlighted falling driving standards on our roads, and the high number of inexperienced youngsters that have accidents on our roads.

This tougher test is a start. But couldn’t more be achieved by periodic retesting for everyone? Surely if nothing else they would enable the eyesight and health of those behind the wheel on our roads to be checked? How many myopic drivers are there on our roads?

Rather like dropping the oral part of GCSE languages whilst expecting immigrants to learn English, it seems a bit hard on youngsters given the number of foreign nationals that learnt to drive who knows where.

Isn't it a male development issue too?

Advanced Driver, Plymouth , Devon

This is ridiculous. Yet more coddling by the bloated nanny state that the UK has become.

The driving licence, much like the property ladder, is a wonderful device for dividing the populace in to two distinct groups - the smug and the damned.

I need a driving licence for the job I want to do, but as a soon-to-be graduate there is no way on earth that I will be able to afford the cost of learning to drive, what with repaying my £12,000 student loan, and trying to afford a house, and my rising council tax, and my spiralling utility bills.

Perhaps if public transport was more comprehensive and even vaguely reliable...

Rob Cheeseman, Derby, UK