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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, it is up to me to wind up on Amendment No. 19A. My noble friend Lord Tenby spoke of the fleeting satisfaction of victims’ families if imprisonment is imposed on those responsible for the victims’ death. I believe that he was spot on with the use of the word ““fleeting””. I urge the Government to reflect on the point that I made about Amendment No. 19A. If the victims’ families are aware that those responsible for the victims’ death are suffering the extreme inconvenience of being kept off the road for at least two years, they will be less zealous—as my noble friend Lord Northbourne also suggesting—in demanding imprisonment. It must surely be better to disqualify careless but otherwise law-abiding drivers rather than add to our enormous prison population. So I urge the Government to reflect on what I have said before the next stage. Of course, I shall not press the amendment now. I am interested that the Government estimated an increase in the prison population of a mere 150. It has been estimated that 90 per cent of road accidents are caused by human error and only 10 per cent by such things as bad road conditions, weather conditions and so on. That 90 per cent gives us a figure of more than 3,000 deaths caused by careless people. However, the Government have made a most constructive and generous offer to look at the sentencing policy again before Third Reading. In that case, I shall not move any of my other amendments, and I beg leave to withdraw this amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 19B and 19C, as amendments to Amendment No. 19, not moved.] On Question, Amendment No. 19 agreed to.