Road Safety Bill [HL]

It is, in the sense that being able to enforce fixed penalty notices is a new range of activities. It is consistent with the role that they play at present, either in pulling a vehicle over and beginning scrutiny of that vehicle, or when the police have called them to carry out an examination of a vehicle. They are not changing their role in respect of this clause; but they will have powers comparable to those of the police as enforcement agents. That is the issue. I am sorry if I misunderstood him with regard to the funding issue; I am getting exceedingly nervous about funding questions after the battering that I have already had this afternoon on that. I bear in mind the point made by the noble Earl, Lord   Erroll, about the accumulation of offences. However, in any walk of life remote from motoring the accumulation of offences is a pretty serious process to be involved in, so of course the racking-up of potential punishment is related to the accumulation of offences—that runs throughout our justice system. It may be thought that the problem with motoring is that all of us only commit minor motoring offences and what a terrible thing it is that we have committed a minor motoring offence four times within a space of time and we lose our licence. Well—if breaking the law is a danger to the community, breaking the law four times is a pretty serious danger. That is the answer to his point.