Road Safety Bill [HL]

I agree with what my noble friend Lord Simon said about hands-free phones, in which he was supported by the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw. There is a new type of hands-free phone. It clips around one’s ear and has a spike that goes toward one’s mouth, which hears what one says. I bought one a few months ago, not so that I could break the law if it is amended by Amendments Nos. 96 and 97, but so that I could use it on my bicycle. The comments of the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, about using a mobile phone on a bicycle are right. It is dangerous to cycle along the road with one hand on the handlebar and holding the other hand to one’s ear. I bought one of these things that clips on to one’s ear, and it works fine if you are stationary. However, once you are moving the wind is blowing past you and whereas you can hear what the other person is saying, they cannot hear what you are saying because it is like the noise of a mighty rushing wind. They are useless when going along on a bicycle and, I presume, on a motorbike. My son has had the same experience. To the question of bicycles and mobile phones the answer is to stop. It is the only solution, if you want to be on the phone, much as you want to keep going. The noble Lord has a point, but it should apply both to traditional mobile phones and the ones that are hands-free, because the latter do not work anyway. I turn to Amendments Nos. 96 and 97. I do not think the fact that police cannot detect them should be a reason for not including hands-free mobiles in the definition of a mobile phone. If you have one of the things clipped to your ear the policeman can see that—if he happens to be around, which is probably unlikely, but he might be. It is possible to check through the mobile phone companies whether someone was using a mobile phone if there has been an accident. If you are on a bicycle you tend to get run into by cars just as frequently when people are using a hands-free mobile phone as when they are using an ordinary mobile phone while driving, because they are not concentrating. I support all the amendments.