The minimum driving age must be raised from 17 to 18 to stop young people ’killing themselves and others’, the Commons Transport Committee said last week.
A report published by the committee also says that lessons for learner drivers should be spread over a year before taking the test, and that there should be a complete alcohol ban for new drivers.
It also says that novice drivers should be banned from carrying passengers aged between 10 and 20 late at night.
The government said it would not rule out adopting the proposals – but LARSOA urged it to go further and put them into practice as soon as possible.
Under the proposed changes, people could start learning to drive at 17, as is currently the case, but not take the test until they are 18.
The committee's report - Novice Drivers - says there should also be an ‘absolute minimum’ number of hours of tuition and a ‘structured syllabus’, rather than instructors cramming knowledge into students ahead of the test.
Training must also tackle ‘inflated self-confidence’ by promoting ‘awareness of one's limitations in real driving situations’.
Meanwhile, ‘hazard perception training’ should be extended, possibly to schools, to encourage better habits in young drivers-to-be.
Transport Committee chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody said: "The time has come for a revolutionary change.
"I think some males would like to drive at 11. But we aren't talking about people having the odd crunch... but about people killing themselves and killing others. The other side is a rise in the number of young people killing young people in the same car."
The committee is calling for a zero alcohol limit for drivers for a year after passing their test. This group should also be banned from carrying passengers aged between 10 and 20 from 11pm to 5am, the report adds.
Mrs Dunwoody said: "The implementation of the measures in this report would go a long way to improve the safety of young and novice drivers and other road users."
Simon Ettinghausen, LARSOA’s young driver adviser, said: “The Select Committee’s suggestions are sensible. LARSOA has long campaigned for this because newly qualified young drivers have not experienced many aspects of driving - for example, driving at night, in poor weather or on motorways.
“Road safety is a crucial issue for all of us and there is action to be taken on all aspects to make our roads safer.”
Louise Ellman, a Labour member of the committee, said the proposals were about saving lives. "If we look at what's happened on the roads, road casualties are actually going down, except for that group of young new drivers where casualty rates are actually going up," she said.
