Road Safety Bill [HL]

Perhaps the Minister could help me, because I am not sure what is and what is not proposed to be legal. I should declare an interest, in so far as I have a little instrument in my car that goes ““peep, peep, peep”” when it approaches a camera. That is an enormous help. My reaction is that I not only slow down but then tend to stick to the speed limit. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, says that people do not do that—they slow down for the camera and put their foot down afterwards. It is true that that happens on occasion, but, in my experience, these instruments have greatly assisted people in keeping to the speed limit. I hope that the Minister will not say that such instruments will become illegal, because that would be a pity. The Government were right to paint the cameras yellow, because previously they were creepy-crawly and deceptive and were trying to catch people out. As the Minister said at the time, their purpose was to try to make people abide by the law, not to catch people. My understanding was that the devices in question would continue to be legal. I hope that they will—not just for selfish reasons, but because they help people keep within the law, rather than, only just, break it. There is often a camera placed at the bottom of a hill. If your car has cruise control and you keep to the limit, although you might have set your speed to 30   mph, you often find that by the time you reach the bottom you have increased to 35 or 40 mph and the camera catches you. That is matter of the placement of cameras. There is no question in my mind that camera detection devices help, because they treat people as reasonable individuals who can see a problem ahead.