My Lords, in moving Amendment 61, I shall speak also to Amendment 62. It is convenient to take the two together.
Since Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, has kindly written, and I am grateful to him for sending a letter in which he set out statistics relating to the deaths and serious injuries arising from drinking and driving and for those drinking excessive alcohol. The numbers that he quoted are broadly similar to those which I ran in Committee. Reference is also made to the later figures which have come out for 2020, on which I shall not comment because they relate, in part, to four months of the year when we were in lockdown, when traffic levels fell and a whole range of other factors were quite different from normal life. I suppose the one saving grace of that period was that pedal cyclist casualty rates fell by 34%; one can only hope that that might continue in future.
What we have had is a decade of broadly the same number of deaths of people who have been killed by drunk drivers and probably a marginally increasing number of people being seriously injured in recent years. Is this to continue? Is the law right? The Government maintain that they want more evidence before they make changes. In his opening remarks in Committee, the Minister said:
“the Government take road safety very seriously and believe that any form of drink-driving is unacceptable and a serious road safety issue”.—[Official Report, 8/11/2021; col. 1535.]
I was surprised, but pleasantly pleased, to hear him say that.
I assume that the provisions are based on science and evidence. If so, could I ask the Government again, as I did way back in 2016, when I moved a Private Member’s Bill, whether they are prepared to present that science and put it in the public domain? As the Government know, clearly, that has relevance to the law of the land.
However, why do the Government continue to permit and give guidance that allows motorists and motorcyclists to drive with quite high levels of alcohol in their blood, especially when other countries now do not? In recent years, many have reduced their levels, but not the UK and Malta. If the Government really believe what I have just quoted from the noble Lord, why do they ignore the science that the more alcohol you drink, the more you risk a collision and possibly maiming or killing people on the scale that continues, as a decade’s data now shows?
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Is it not strange that the Government insist that they need more evidence from advocates such as me before they will formally require and advise people to drink less when driving? Surely, in the light of the known statistics on deaths and serious injuries, it is now up to the Government, after a decade, to justify why they continue with the law as it is, with people having advice that permits them to drive with quite high levels of alcohol in their blood. This is contrary to the science, and I argue that the Government’s position should change.
In 2014, Scotland changed from 80 milligrams down to 50 milligrams. Initially, it saw quite a change in public attitude, because there was a good deal of
public relations relating to the change. Regrettably, the enforcement from the police was not prevalent or changed and, in the light of that inadequacy, the public at large slipped back—so now we have evidence quoted against us that it is only enforcement that really works and that changing the law and giving advice on what you should and should not drink will not make any difference. As I have argued, in my opinion, it would. People are entitled to know the amount they should or should not drink, and it should be lower than it is at present. Those who have known people killed or seriously injured look to the Government to clarify their position in this respect.
I accept that there is an argument about enforcement, as I did previously. It is inadequate at the moment. I speak now to Amendment 62. I have endeavoured to help the Government with a possible solution in this area, because we cannot continue with the number of deaths and the number of people being so injured. I have tabled Amendment 62, which seeks the introduction of police random breath tests. It does not require additional resources, other than the money spent on a public campaign advising people that, if they drink and drive, they run the risk of being stopped and breath-tested without necessarily committing any other motoring offence, which at present is generally not the position.
This is a deterrent. I think the Government have now seen that there are merits and benefits in using deterrents. I remind the House that, only last week, in the 10-year drugs plan, the Government announced that if people were caught purchasing and using illegal drugs they would face deterrents—the deterrent of having their driving licence or passport taken away from them. I believe this is a move in the right direction in another area, and I hope the Government will be prepared to seriously consider looking for deterrents in this area, given that the existing law has not reduced the number of deaths and the number of people being seriously injured.
I am grateful too for the invitation from the noble Baroness, Lady Vere, to a number of us to talk to us about our amendments and how the Government might try to find ways of accommodating us. She reported that the Government intend to call for evidence and to establish a review of road traffic offences. I, like other noble Lords, welcome that but, having been around this House for quite some time, I am very conscious that we have embarked on similar reviews previously. We were promised one in 2014 and we still have not had it. Since then, in the area in which I am interested, 1,500 people have been killed and some thousands have suffered serious injuries.
I believe that the Government have been seeking to persuade me again to withdraw on the basis that this topic will come under the review. I do not believe that I should wait a great deal longer with regard to drink and driving offences, and I hope the House is not prepared to do so. We have been around this so many times previously—there is so much science around and so much evidence.
I hope that the Government will do the right thing—they know in their heart what the right thing is. I hope too that noble Lords will stand by their decision of
2015 on the Private Member’s Bill that I brought before the House, and which was adopted. I hope they will stand by the decision taken then, notwithstanding what their Whips might have said to them today. This House has an independence not seen to the same extent in the other place. I hope tonight that, having listened to me, noble Lords will show their independence and back the amendments that I bring before them.