Baroness Hayman, road safety minister, said: 'We need to learn more about the causes of road accidents. The information is essential for our work in reducing the unacceptable toll of death and injury every year on our roads. I hope that a growing number of local authorities and police take part in this valuable experiment.'

The Government is also bringing in new requirements for the collection of driver and casualty post codes to increase the possibilities for linking road accident data with other sources such as hospital data.