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Road Safety Bill [Lords]

No. I think that I gave the example of someone driving at 66 mph in a 40 mph zone, and if I did not, I apologise. As it happens, 66 mph, according to guidelines from the Association of Chief Police Officers, is on the cusp in terms of being sent to court, so such a person might or might not be sent to court. I used that example because the point is that someone who does 66 mph in a 40 mph zone could get the same number of points and the same fine as someone who does 36 mph; I ask the House to reflect on that. I will of course take further interventions, but I want first to make further progress. As I said earlier, courts will have recourse to re-training courses, and we will raise the penalty for failing to identify a driver to six penalty points. We will also clarify the law on speeding exemptions and the associated training requirements. People who are transporting organs for transplant by car, for example, are sometimes stopped by the police, and the law in that area needs to be clarified. On any view, there has been a significant drop in the number of deaths and injuries at safety camera sites. Devices that detect or jam such equipment need to be dealt with, and the Bill does that. There has been a change in Britain’s culture in terms of drink-driving. Generally speaking, the figures have come down since the 1970s, but alcohol is still a factor in about one in seven of all fatal crashes, accounting for some 500 deaths a year. What is worse, 20 per cent. of such offenders are repeat offenders. The statistics also show that younger, predominantly male drivers are more likely to be under the influence of alcohol. So we are giving the courts the power to make repeat drink-driving offenders re-take their driving test. That will require secondary legislation, but the principle needs to be dealt with in the Bill. That way, repeat offenders will be kept off the roads until they have completed the necessary medical examination. We will also enable the use of alcohol ignition interlocks, which have been shown to be effective in discouraging re-offending. I hope that all these measures, backed up by others such as advertising, will get across the message that drinking and driving kills.