Road traffic volumes have shown a 3% rise in the past week, according to the latest figures released by the Department for Transport, revealed at yesterday’s Government press conference at No 10.

Prior to that, traffic volumes had fallen by 59% since the first week of February.

The small upward trend in road traffic was confirmed by the RAC Insurance spokesman Simon Williams: “Analysis of hundreds of thousands of RAC Insurance black box trips confirms the number of vehicles on the UK’s roads is rising.

“By the second week of the lockdown our data clearly showed the volume of vehicles being driven had fallen by 40%, but by the end of last week, this crept back up again by 10%. The number of separate trips being made by car has also risen by 14% since the beginning of April.

“With the lockdown still very much in force, it remains the case that none of us should be driving unless it’s for an essential trip.

“The fact we are now several weeks into the lockdown must not be used as an excuse to change our behaviour and venture out unnecessarily – our data seems to suggest some people may be finding more reasons to be on the road than earlier in April.”