Road Safety Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 9:"After Clause 1, insert the following new clause—"    ““ACCREDITATION FOR PURPOSES OF ESCORTING LOADS OF EXCEPTIONAL DIMENSIONS    After section 41 of the Police Reform Act 2002 (c. 30) (accreditation under Community Safety accreditation schemes) insert—    ““41A ACCREDITATION FOR PURPOSES OF ESCORTING LOADS OF EXCEPTIONAL DIMENSIONS (1)   This section applies where the Secretary of State is of the opinion that it would be beneficial to ordinary road users for certain members of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces to be accredited persons for controlling traffic for the purposes of escorting a load of exceptional dimensions. (2)   The Secretary of State may grant a general accreditation to any person who meets the requirements of subsection (4) below. (3)   Paragraph 9 of Schedule 5. Power to control traffic for purposes of escorting a load of exceptional dimensions shall have effect to persons accredited under this section. (4)   The requirements to be met before the Secretary of State grants accreditation are— (a)   that the person is a member of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and is otherwise a suitable person to exercise the powers that will be conferred upon him by virtue of the accreditation; (b)   that the person is capable of effectively carrying out the functions for the purposes of which those powers are to be conferred on him; and (c)   that the person has a military trade qualification of either— (i)   a military policeman, or (ii)   a driver of abnormal load carrying vehicle, and is specially trained and qualified to exercise the powers specified in paragraph 9 of Schedule 5.”””” The noble Earl said: With some trepidation, I move Amendment No. 9. I remind the Committee that I am a serving TA officer involved in logistics. The amendment also relates to accreditation under   Section 41 of the Police Reform Act 2002. Schedule 5(9) to the Act allows accredited persons to give directions to traffic to facilitate the efficient movement of abnormal loads. I understand that no   police force has accredited anyone under paragraph 9 for those purposes, which may have something to do with the way in which the provisions were included in the Police Reform Act. The same problem of accreditation applies to military personnel as applies to VOSA officials with regard to the need to accredit with every police force. Service personnel who want to escort an abnormal load and use the powers of an accredited person will also have to be accredited with all 40 or so police forces. The reality is that military personnel already stop ordinary traffic and motorists, who would expect the military to have that power. Of course, we know well that they do not. So the reality is no change. The key part of my amendment is Section 41C, which states that the person must be either a military policeman, who obviously is trained to stop vehicles, or the driver of a heavy equipment—abnormal load—transporter. In both cases, he must be specially trained and qualified. That would provide a better quality control system than would be available from civilian industry. I beg to move.