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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed to this short debate. As the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, accurately prophesied, I cannot accept the amendments. But I accept very much the spirit in which they are moved, and who could gainsay the enormous advantages to the road-travelling public, in fact to all of us, if we increase first-aid skills? That is why we were only too happy to meet with representatives of the Red Cross, St John Ambulance and others in the summer to discuss these issues. We want to see an improvement in first-aid skills. As all noble Lords have testified, this can be of enormous advantage in certain circumstances. Our problem is quite straightforward: we are opposed to the idea that passing the driving test, which is a test of being able to drive a vehicle, should be dependent on a supplementary test or concept regarding first aid. I want to give the assurance straight away that of course we will look at the issues of strengthening the driving test questions on first aid. We already have provision with regard to that. It is not the case that you can pass the driving test and show complete ignorance of first aid. We will look to ways, which we discussed with the Red Cross, of strengthening the driving test in these terms. But we are still reluctant to accept the argument that the test of the ability to drive should potentially be passed or failed by an additional test on competence regarding first aid. I heard what the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, said on how limited that test might be. Even so, as I attested when we discussed the issue in Committee, there are some who might find that test difficult, or even inimical, to take. There is a problem there. I noticed that the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner, gave her whole-hearted support to the concept on this occasion. Last time she introduced a concept for which I was grateful and which I shall reiterate—not to embarrass her in any way, shape or form, but to show that we take her representations seriously, as indeed we should. Her point was that people who blithely address themselves to first aid and get it wrong could find themselves liable if it were subsequently shown that they had significantly contributed to the degree of action the person suffered. So, we are worried about that aspect. I give way to the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, of course.