Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I beg to move that the Bill be now read a second time. The United Kingdom has one of the best road safety records in the world. It is a record we can rightly be proud of. The Government are working to improve that record still further. We launched our Road Safety Strategy in 2000, and reviewed it last year. Our aim is to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 40 per cent by 2010, and by 50 per cent among children, against the baseline of average casualties over 1994 to 1998. We have made good progress. The latest figures, for 2004, show that the number of people killed or seriously injured had fallen by 28 per cent compared with the baseline; that is 10,000 fewer injuries every year, halfway towards our target. The number of children killed or seriously injured has dropped by 41 per cent—over three-quarters of the way towards the 50 per cent reduction target for children. But 3,500 people still die on our roads each year—that is, 10 deaths every day. There are still over 4,000 children a year killed or seriously injured. That is why the Government have introduced the Road Safety Bill, which contains a range of measures aimed at reducing the number of deaths and injuries and making our roads safer. It will make an important contribution to meeting the Government’s targets in 2010. Road accidents are caused by a very wide range of factors. Road safety calls for action across many fronts, and the range is clear in our Road Safety Strategy. It includes issues from drink driving to training standards; seat belt wearing, which is simple but as important as ever; the Think! information and advertising programme; safety cameras; and proper mobile phone use. The year 2005 has seen a number of key developments in road safety. The first fully-fledged National Motorcycling Strategy was published in February. In January, Ministers from the Department for Transport and the Home Office issued a Roads Policing Strategy jointly with the Association of Chief   Police Officers. That reaffirmed the shared commitment to a highly visible police presence on the roads, and identified four particular dimensions of unlawful, disorderly and dangerous use of roads and vehicles, namely: drink and drug driving; speeding; failure to use seat belts; and driving which is dangerous, careless or threatening to other road users. Finally, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act was given Royal Assent in April. It brought in measures to combat uninsured driving, as well as enabling the police to undertake evidential breath-tests at the roadside. The Road Safety Bill will continue in that wide-ranging approach. It will cover many different issues from dealing with vehicle fraud to ensuring that penalties for road traffic offences are effective, proportionate and fair. Research surveys show that nearly everyone thinks that they are a better than average driver. That is not possible and it is not true. Behaviour is a key factor in as many as half of all car fatalities. It is essential that we send a clear message to those who commit driving offences, particularly in the case of severe or repeat offences. The Bill increases penalties for careless and inconsiderate driving, for using a hand-held mobile phone while driving, for failing to have proper control of a vehicle, and for repeat offences of using a vehicle in a dangerous condition. Nowhere is the impact of driver behaviour more apparent than where drivers speed. Excessive speed contributes to nearly 30 per cent of fatalities, more than 1,000 deaths each year. It is a factor in another 40,000 more injuries. Research tells us that the greatest reduction in these casualties would come from reducing the speed of those who break the speed limits most seriously. Penalties need to reflect this. The Bill provides for graduated fixed penalty points for various offences, including speeding. These will be more effective, proportionate and fair, helping motorists to understand the dangers of excessive speed and encouraging them to respect the law. This will allow tougher punishment for those who speed the most seriously, as well as scope for lesser penalties for less severe speeding. This will help ensure that speeding law and penalties command public support. The Bill sets out the enabling powers for graduated fixed penalty points. It provides that there will be formal consultation to help determine the detailed proposals, which will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure and debate in Parliament. However, the law is not the only solution. Several police forces offer ““low-end speeders”” the option of going on speed awareness courses, at their own expense, where this looks to be a more effective way to help them to drive more carefully and considerately. The Association of Chief Police Officers is putting in place a national programme of awareness courses. The Government welcome this police initiative. An independent report last year showed a 32 per cent drop in speeding and a 40 per cent reduction in deaths and serious injuries at safety camera sites. However, devices that detect or jam speed assessment equipment can remove the need for drivers to watch their speed. They threaten to reverse the gains that we have made recently and to make other police speed enforcement procedures useless. The Bill will enable the fitting and use of these devices to be prohibited by means of regulations. In addition to these measures, we propose: re-training courses as a ““court disposal”” for the more serious speed   offenders, based on the successful Drink-Drive Rehabilitation Scheme—they will also extend to careless driving offenders—raising the penalty for failing to identify the driver to six penalty points; and clarifying the   law on speed exemptions and associated training requirements. We have made great strides in tackling drink driving over the past two decades through a combination of powerful information campaigns and police enforcement. There has been a real change in Britain’s culture when it comes to drinking and driving. Yet alcohol is still a factor in about one in seven of all fatal crashes. It is responsible for more than 500 deaths a year on the roads. Up to 20 per cent of drink-drive convictions are repeat offenders. Statistics of road accidents indicate that younger, predominantly male drivers are the ones more likely to be under the influence of alcohol. The Bill will allow us to make repeat drink-drive offenders retake their driving test. It will ensure that repeat offenders are kept from driving until they have completed the necessary medical examination. It also enables the future use of alcohol ignition interlocks which have been shown to be very effective in discouraging re-offending. The Bill will also allow unlicensed and non-GB licence holders to be given fixed penalties in respect of endorsable road traffic offences. In addition, the Bill will enable police and enforcement officers to require offenders who cannot supply a satisfactory UK address to pay an immediate deposit in lieu of a fixed penalty, or pending a court hearing. This would prevent drivers who leave the country before payment of a fixed penalty is due escaping punishment, as can happen all too easily now. Since the launch of continuous vehicle registration in 2004, vehicle licence evasion has dropped to 3.4 per cent, from 4.8 per cent in 2002. We aim to reduce this number to 2.5 per cent by 2007. However, unlicensed vehicles are still a problem. They may slip off the record and be used in vehicle fraud or other criminal activity. The Bill extends the regulation of registration plate suppliers to Scotland and Northern Ireland. It enables us to share driver and vehicle data with foreign authorities. These measures will help the fight against cross-border vehicle crime and vehicle-related fraud and make it harder for vehicles to slip off the record. In addition, the Bill will enable us to require the surrender of paper driving licences, which will be replaced by photocard driving licences. This will improve the security of the licence held by all drivers and overcome the fraudulent use of the paper licence. The Bill will also enable us to require vehicle mileages to be reported to the DVLA. This will help to combat the fraudulent practice of ““clocking”” vehicles—that means reducing the number of miles shown on the clock to make the vehicle more attractive when it is resold. One of the most important elements of our Road Safety Strategy is to improve people’s awareness on the roads so that fewer accidents happen in the first place. We are working towards this goal for drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians as well as driving instructors. We have introduced advanced learning packages for these groups, such as the Pass Plus post-test driving scheme for newly-qualified drivers and the Arrive Alive road safety awareness course for young people. We have also brought in the hazard perception test for driving instructors. These are supported by the Think! road safety advertising campaign. It is a fact that young and newly qualified drivers have a higher risk of collisions than older and more experienced drivers, as we discussed at Question Time earlier this afternoon. The Bill will put in place measures to provide higher standards for professional driving instructors. It will improve the regulation of driving schools, including not just the instructors themselves but also those involved in running a driving instruction business or franchise. In addition, the Bill will enable the registration of instructors for vehicles other than cars. Currently instruction for these vehicles is unregulated and standards vary widely as a result. In addition, the Bill will introduce a power to impose higher-quality training for driving instructors, while recognising that some will come to the job with vast existing experience. The Bill will also enable the publication of information about the performance of registered driving instructors, allowing learner drivers to make a more informed choice of instructor. The Bill will help to ensure that drivers and riders of all types of motor vehicles are trained to a high standard according to the demands of today’s road conditions. ““Tiredness kills””—an estimated 300 people each year are killed where a driver has fallen asleep at the wheel. The Government’s message to drivers is ““Take a break””. The Bill will enable the building of motorway picnic areas to enable drivers to do just that. The Bill will also contain measures to provide inspectors with additional investigative powers to ensure the safe transport of radioactive material; to improve the licensing arrangements for London private hire vehicles; and to bring in inspection and certification of vehicles modified to run on fuel stored under pressure. Finally, casualty statistics show how important local action is with a big margin between the police force areas that are doing best and some areas where casualties have actually increased since the baseline was established. The Government are supporting local action through demonstration projects, working with local authorities to develop and demonstrate good practice, and through transport funding. In order to encourage new and innovative local road safety schemes, the Bill will allow the Government to pay specific grants to local authorities that are bringing ground-breaking new measures to promote road safety. In conclusion, the Bill will help to create a safer environment for all road users. It takes a wide-ranging approach to road safety, tackling each of the issues with specific measures. I commend the Bill to the House. Moved, That the Bill be now read a second time.—(Lord Davies of Oldham.)