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Road Safety Bill [HL]

Before the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, speaks, I remind the Committee of the speech that was made during Question Time by the noble Lord, Lord   Higgins. Once again, the Government are asking us to take them on trust. We are being asked to pass a law allowing the Government to introduce something, but they cannot even tell us that the technology that they propose to introduce actually exists. If we are being asked to pass something into law, we want to know that it works and that it has been tried out. It should not exist as a figment of somebody’s imagination. The Minister drew comfort from the fact that the people who go on drink-driving courses were two and a half times less likely to offend than, presumably, those who do not. But people who are offered the opportunity of going on such courses are picked out as being likely to benefit from going on them. From the people who have broken the law, those who are most likely to be apologetic and compliant are picked out. I remind the Minister that I raised with him last Monday the question of the huge number of disqualified drivers who are driving. They constitute a great danger and do not seem either to be apprehended by the police, because the number of traffic police has been so much reduced, or, apparently, to figure greatly in the Government’s priorities. I shall study what the Minister said, but it may well be a matter to which we will return at a later date.