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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am almost tempted to say that the Minister has, with his comments about hands-free phones, led us to a situation in which no one will be able to be accompanied in a car at all. I cannot see that there is anything much more diverting about talking to a hands-free mobile than there is in talking to someone who is sitting next to the driver, or to passengers or children sitting behind him. Should they be dumped—do they need to come as well? So we are all going to be travelling up and down the motorway on our own, with a mobile phone. In that case, since we will all be on our own with our mobile phone, there will be no one to alert anyone else to the difficulty of a driver who has a problem, such as a child needing to be collected from school while you are stuck, or something that may look like an emergency to the person driving, but not to everyone else. There is a need for an escape clause here, although I know the Minister does not think so. We will probably try again, but for today’s purposes I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.