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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have listened with great interest to the noble Earl and I always enjoy following him. I believe that greater recognition is necessary both for victims and their families, and I certainly think that a personal appearance is essential in this type of case. But, like the noble Earl, I am concerned about ““intent””. It is clear that illegal driving, drink driving, drug driving, dangerous driving and reckless driving are all activities in the context of intent. If I were to return to my one-time occupation as a criminal justice social worker, I would be able to sit down and talk those through with someone. But it is very difficult to talk through the idea of doing anything carelessly and tying it in with intention. So I think that people will be keener to argue the point, resulting in more trials as defendants try to establish that, whatever had happened, there had been no intention.