Road Safety Bill [HL]

I thank the Minister for his comments on Amendment No. 4, but I cannot thank him too much for his comments on some of the other amendments. However, they are probing amendments. We will certainly think of different wording and come back to the issue as the Bill goes on. In my local authority, Essex, we prepare a local transport plan each year, which is an enormously thick document. If we are lucky, we get around £30 million a year, which seems quite a lot of money, but it has a lot to do. A little more extra money, particularly for road safety, would make the world of difference. I repeat, we think that we could save 40 lives a year in Essex by further investment on road safety. Whatever national demonstrations or organisations are involved, local authorities will do it because they know where money can be invested to save lives. My first amendment was to see whether any money would be available in rate support grant or local transport plans, or whether money would be allocated. I agree that this is not the time. The Minister said that   it is a process and these amendments are about process. But if money is to be allocated, we need to know that there is a process for doing so. We do not need to know the actual amounts, but we need to know that there might be a process whereby money might come from somewhere. The other amendment in the group referred to a big surplus. No one is denying or saying that we should not invest money in the camera system, but there is an enormous surplus in it. Certainly, one would not want to stop money being reinvested in it, but why should the surplus go to the Home Office? Why can it not be invested in road safety, which is what it is all about? The amendments were probing amendments to elicit answers from the Government on how money might be recycled or how local authorities might obtain more money through the process. Those questions were not answered at all by the Minister. We will come back to it. As we go through the Bill, several amendments will cover it. We will have to pursue this because if we are to save lives, which is what it is all about, we will need to know more about it. With that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.