My Lords, I am moving this amendment to enable the House to continue the discussion which took place in Committee with regard to what was then Clause 66: the new offence of causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving. I should stress that we are dealing here with careless driving pure and simple, with no aggravating factors or other offence being committed—an act of carelessness or a moment of inattention which causes a serious injury.
My objection to the clause relates to the fact that among the penalties that a conviction for this offence will attract is a sentence of imprisonment: two years on indictment and one year if prosecuted summarily. There are also provisions for automatic—or, I should say, obligatory—disqualification and endorsement. I make no complaint about that, nor do I complain about the two-year sentence on indictment. However, I am concerned about the sentence of imprisonment in cases which do not deserve to go to jury trial and are taken summarily before magistrates, or before sheriffs in Scotland.
I recognise that as the law stands, causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving does attract a sentence of imprisonment. On the other hand, causing a very serious life-changing injury, where perhaps the injured party has survived only by the skill of the doctors, does not. I can well understand why the Government see this as a gap which needs to be filled. But the situations to which the wording of this clause will apply extend well beyond those where one can reasonably say that there is a gap in the present law that needs to be filled. The words “careless” and “serious injury” can embrace many situations where to send the careless driver to prison would be wholly disproportionate. That is my concern.
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I am grateful to Roger Geffen, the policy director of Cycling UK, for his comments in an email that I received this morning, saying that he shared my concern. Cycling UK represents, I suppose, the other road users who are the most vulnerable to this kind of offence. I have not had quite the same experience as my noble friend Lord Berkeley of Knighton, but I have encountered cyclists in the early hours of the morning when, in Scotland, it is really dark, and they were not wearing much in the way of illumination. If I had been a bit careless, I might have knocked one of them off their bicycle and broken their wrist, for example. There you are: an act of carelessness and an injury that would be classified as serious. Am I then to be facing a prison
sentence? That is my concern, and he recognises that point. As he put it, the law should not threaten prison sentences for driving that is deemed to be merely careless. The emphasis that he would like to see is on disqualification as a better way of getting people off the road than sending them to prison. It is a much more acceptable way of dealing with this offence, unless it reaches the very peak of the situations where the injuries are indeed very serious.
I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, for adding her name to this amendment. I am also grateful to the Minister for meeting with us last week to discuss our concerns and the way they might be addressed. I have given some thought to the possibility of changing the wording of the clause, but I have come to view that the words “careless” and “serious injury” are too embedded in the statutory lexicon for that. Adding the word “very” to “careless” or “very” to “serious injury” does not really improve the situation: indeed, it could cause some confusion and more difficulties than are really worth attracting for those who have to make judgments on these things. I decided, therefore, that trying to tinker with the wording is not the solution, which is why I turn to the Minister.
It seems to me that a pragmatic approach to this problem is to accept the wording of the clause, but for the Government to indicate as strongly as they can that it is not their intention that prison sentences should be the norm, even when the injury tends towards the upper end of the scale. Ultimately, the way of dealing with the various gradations of injury and carelessness would be a matter for the Sentencing Council to set out, as it has already done for this kind of offence in various grades. However, all of that will take time, which is why an indication from the Minister would be very important as we encounter this offence coming before magistrates and sheriffs soon after the Bill takes effect. I hope the Minister will be able to assure your Lordships that he has taken on board my concerns about the possibility of prison sentences for this offence by placing that possibility into its proper context. I beg to move.