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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support the amendment. I particularly want to emphasise my noble friend’s point about transparency. I do not agree with the Minister that people are under a ““widespread misapprehension”” about how they are being clipped by the so-called safety cameras. As he will know, Marlow Hill in Wycombe is one case on which I often comment, and the Bucks Free Press has attempted to get the facts of the case. I think that transparency is necessary. The reply received from the authority that receives the money is that, under the Freedom of Information Act, it does not have to give any details or information about the case because it is exempt. Why should the revenue from such cameras be exempted? Why should there not be transparency so that people know the figures? I then tabled a Question in your Lordships' House but the reply was, ““Sorry, we cannot tell you; only the local people will be able to tell you””. If the first group is hiding behind the protection of an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act and the Government are saying that they have no information, what will be the position when, next March, we change over to the system being suggested? Are we to have no idea how much money is being raised, where it is going or how it is being spent? I strongly support my noble friend's amendment because of the transparency it will bring.