---

Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I take issue on a couple of points the Minister has raised. First, he said that he is out to enhance the standard of the test, so that people who pass will be better. My scheme would enable people to be tested to see whether they are better. How is the Minister planning to test whether the enhanced test is an improvement or not? Then he talked about all sorts of restrictions. My amendment does not put any restrictions anywhere on anything. As my noble friend Lord Swinfen said, this is an enabling amendment to allow the department, if it decides that there is anything to be gained by it, to have a way of assessing and testing through a pilot scheme. The Minister is telling me that nothing has been proven and that there is no real evidence, but what I am suggesting is a means of giving him the evidence for the future. That is the aim of this amendment. The final and, perhaps, most important point is that this is only an enabling provision. There is nothing to say that the department would have to introduce the system at all. I do not know that the Minister answered this point, although I believe he indicated that primary legislation would be required if we were to introduce a scheme other than in this Bill. If primary legislation is required, Heaven knows how many more years we will have to wait before we can make such an enabling provision. I would like the Minister to answer those points before I decide what to do with this amendment.