Britain is set to become a 'world leader' in the realm of autonomous cars, according to the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

The technologies will be supported by new legislation which will determine who is to blame should a driverless car be involved in a crash.

A report in the Birmingham Mail states a new Bill will set out how insurance claims are made following an accident.

At present, legal issues make it impossible to test autonomous vehicles on the roads of the United Kingdom.

The legislation will help companies like Jaguar Land Rover, which is said to be investing millions in autonomous car technologies.

Mr Grayling said to the Mail: “We will soon have a Bill that will do things like addressing the insurance issue for driverless cars.

“One of the issues as we develop driverless cars in this country is, if they crash who is responsible? if you are not driving the car, how can you be responsible if it’s driving itself?

“So we are going to be publishing legislation shortly that will clarify exactly how that should work in the UK.

“And I hope that will be part of giving us a good step ahead in terms of the regulatory environment for developing that technology in the UK.”

The new laws will be introduced "in the next month or so," by the Transport Secretary's estimates, although he said the process of introducing autonomous cars to Britain's roads would be gradual – not sudden.

“The completely autonomous car where you can get in and read the paper is some way away," Grayling continued.

“But over the next decade, almost every time a new generation of cars is released, a new model is released, it’s going to be one step further down the road.”

The Transport Minister's aim is to make the UK "a really good place” to test and build autonomous cars.

According to data from the Society of Motoring Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), 1.7 million cars were built in the UK during 2016, the highest figure for 17 years. Output has risen 8.5 per cent compared to 2015.