Road Safety Bill [HL]

I took careful note of the assenting voices after the speech of the noble Earl, Lord Dundee, and he clearly was not speaking alone.   However, I was grateful also to the noble Earl, Lord   Errol, for putting an alternative viewpoint—which is the one that we take on these amendments. We still have a lot of consultation work to do. There are many and varied viewpoints on just what the table should look like, and we do not pretend that the debate has been fully thrashed out. We have it in mind that this debate will take some time before we reach a decision on   secondary legislation. I hasten to add that I heard what   the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, said about secondary legislation. I assure him that it would be done by affirmative order and would therefore be considered seriously by both Houses. We have to take into account what will be recognised in this Chamber as very diverse   views. Our minds are not entirely made up. The noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, pressed me rather more vigorously on a previous group of amendments. He probably considered that I had evaded the issue and had not addressed them. I apologise for not responding to that important point but I take the opportunity to do so now. I am not in a position to be definitive. We shall have a substantial debate about speeding as we discuss the Bill further. A significant section of the Bill is devoted to that issue. We shall come to that. The Government have not made up their mind on the issue. We want enabling legislation to be in place to allow the issue to be resolved with an affirmative order being put before both Houses for consideration after the conclusion of debate. The noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, probed me on the matter of process.