Road Safety Bill [HL]

Amendment No. 120 in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, is grouped with Amendment No. 117 tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Dundee. The noble Earl, Lord Dundee, has taken very specific points, which is not what we intend with our Amendment No. 120. We wanted to make the prime point that the vehicle driven by a new driver should be clearly identifiable and that it should be apparent to anyone that the person driving that car had not had long experience. I am not sure that six months is long enough, but the Government should take on board that some form of plate should be displayed for new drivers for a period, whatever that period, and there should be ways of testing what would be the ideal period. I have done some research in Australia where there are various restrictions for almost the first couple of years of driving. It is not for us tonight to decide exactly what time it should be, but whatever special measures are needed to help increase the safety of these young drivers—both for themselves and for the others who suffer the damaging effects of this very high percentage of accidents—they could be dealt with at a later stage by regulations. The regulations could then apply to whoever had to display this type of restricted plate. That applies as far as young people are concerned. As regards older people getting licences for the first time, I remember clearly a case that came to court where one elderly lady drove with her L-plates on and she was pulled up and taken to court because she was showing L-plates when she was a fully qualified driver. The reason was, she said, that people got very impatient with her and, when they saw the L-plates, were a little more patient. The case was thrown out, of course; it was nonsense that it was ever brought, and it was a long time ago. A lot of young people are not full of bravado but insecure new drivers. They would benefit from other drivers having a little more patience with them and taking into account their lack of experience. Those people would benefit by some type of plate being displayed. In other countries—I think that it is in effect in Australia—there is almost a nil alcohol level for new drivers, or so close as to be virtually nil. That has been accepted very well by young people. When they go for a night out, be it in the pub or to a party, they say, ““So who’s the driver?””. They select the driver and that person does not have alcohol; they drive for the others. That seems to be the type of situation at which we should aim, with the driver going to a party being clear that they should not drive with any degree of alcohol that could be even moderately dangerous. They would be more dangerous than a very experienced driver with the same small level of alcohol. I support in principle many of the points in the amendment tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Dundee, and I certainly would like the Government to consider some form of identification of the newly qualified driver.