Road Safety Bill [HL]

The noble Earl should not be too dismissive of that last point. It means that a single operator must have a professionally competent person alongside him to do one job—to ensure that his truck meets the standards. The noble Earl may employ people by the thousand, but I know that many one-person businesses, if they were compelled to double their wage bill, would go out of business. So, the matter is not as easy as the noble Earl indicated. Regarding scaffolding, we all recognise the fact that certain trades carry their loose materials around with them. I would not be as disparaging as the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, but he does not receive as many votes from builders as my party—as was in evidence in the recent election. All I am saying is that we have no evidence of vast amounts of scaffolding cascading down our roads that would render the accident rate so appalling that we would need to change the licensing system.