When You're the One Being Overtaken

Overtaking creates obligations on both sides — being overtaken isn't a passive event:

• Look to the left. If the shoulder is empty and it's safe, you can ease slightly left to make the manoeuvre easier and safer for the overtaking vehicle.
• Do not accelerate. If anything, be prepared to slow slightly — it shortens the time the other vehicle spends exposed in the opposing lane.
• You're obliged to assist even a risky or illegal overtake. If someone has already committed — say, across a solid centre line — your job is not to punish the violation; it's to stop their mistake becoming a collision. Don't speed up, and don't obstruct their return to the lane.

That last point is the one that feels wrong and isn't: the moment another vehicle is alongside you in the opposing lane, you are part of the manoeuvre whether you consented to it or not. The safest version of that manoeuvre is the one that ends quickly — and you control a real share of how long it takes.