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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness and I would have been surprised if she had remained silent while harbouring such anxieties about the way that this legislation will work, if the amendments receive the approval of the House. We are not talking about double jeopardy or a retrial; we are saying that when the prosecution presents the charge of the more serious offence, it will encompass within that all the issues which might relate to the more minor offence. It will be for the judge to say that he did not find the first position established and he might direct the court to consider the second. That is how it would work. It would be the same trial—it would not be double jeopardy. You would be before the court with the more serious charge being outlined, and you might find that eventually, on the evidence, you were convicted on the lesser part of the offence. That is the basis on which it would work. I hope that that allays noble Lords’ well founded anxieties. On Question, amendment agreed to.