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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I regret to say that I cannot agree with this amendment because it seems unnecessary. The Minister already has plenty of power to collect information that becomes available on various kinds of motor accidents. In any event, the amendment itself is very strangely worded. The purpose of the board would be to,"““improve road safety by determining the causes of road accidents””." But there is plenty of opportunity to do that already. Moreover, the new clause suggests a ““specified number of serious accidents”” that are unspecified, ““over a specified period”” that is unspecified, which take place ““on a specified stretch of road””. Does that mean that only accidents over particular stretches of road are to be considered relevant? That seems to me to be a wrong purpose. We then find that,"““The Board shall have neither responsibility for apportioning blame or liability nor for enforcing the law or carrying out prosecutions””." Making such a provision when an obligation has been placed on a department surely means that you are depriving the department of expressing its opinions. There are various other ways in which this amendment seems quite unsuitable. I certainly hope that the Government will not support it and that your Lordships will not vote for it.