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Road Safety Bill [HL]

moved, as an amendment to the Motion that this House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 1, leave out ““agree”” and insert ““disagree””. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall be as brief as possible. It is interesting to note that it is exactly one year ago this month that we first discussed this amendment in your Lordships' House. I declare an interest as leader of Essex County Council, as this amendment is relevant to local government. Noble Lords will recall that this new clause is designed to enhance local road safety measures by permitting the hypothecation of surplus income from safety camera enforcement for expenditure by relevant local transport authorities on road safety measures. In short, it is intended to provide a source of funding that will enable local expertise to be translated into local road safety initiatives in a manner that is both responsive to and commensurate with the character of local problems. The figures are quite striking. In 2000-01, there were only seven camera partnerships which took just over £10 million in fines and spent just under £9 million, leaving a balance of a little over £1 million, which went into the consolidated fund—better known perhaps as the Chancellor’s black hole, which the Minister has just mentioned. That balance was 13 per cent of the funds in 2001. What is fascinating is that there has been a spectacular increase in income and in the number of partnerships. There were about 35 partnerships in 2003-04 with receipts of £112 million and an expenditure of £92 million, leaving £20 million going to the Chancellor. Not only have receipts increased approximately tenfold, but the balance going to the Chancellor as a percentage of total receipts has increased from 13 per cent to 18 per cent. Ten years ago around 200,000 speeding fines were issued. That figure has now rocketed to 2 million. At the same time, the number of traffic policemen has fallen from 9,000 in 1997 to 7,000 in 2005. Therefore, we are worried that there is too much dependence on mechanical, fixed forms of enforcement and not enough on human beings—policemen—who can take account of varying conditions. We are also concerned about the serious failing in the Government’s strategy. That very point was echoed by the report published yesterday by the Transport Select Committee, which stated that the country needed greater numbers of traffic officers to enforce existing traffic laws. The committee chairman, Gwyneth Dunwoody, went further and said that cameras are a useful tool but could not replace officers. It is exactly that type of electronic policing, blunt and arbitrary as it is, that is causing rather a lot of anger around the country. This amendment is not about whether cameras save lives or reduce accidents—clearly evidence suggests that in most cases they do—but about bringing a greater degree of transparency and openness to the process of road enforcement and allowing people the chance to see that surplus revenues are being spent directly on road safety measures. Speaking of my own county, we could be as much as £6 million better off, and that money would provide so many more road safety projects. I am quite happy that the money should be hypothecated to road safety. That would be much more transparent compared with it going to the consolidated fund and not knowing whether or not we get that money. A few months ago, in some press articles, the Government hinted that they were interested in operating a scheme that we had been suggesting. I believe that it is not too late for the Government to bring forward their own amendment and include it in this Bill. I hope that they will give some serious thought to it. I am sure that we would work with them to tidy up the amendment to make it appropriate. This is an important transparency issue. I beg to move. Moved, as an amendment to the Motion that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 1, leave out ““agree”” and insert ““disagree””.—(Lord Hanningfield.)