Road Safety Bill [HL]

No, I am not talking about an ID card, although I am mindful of the discussions that are taking place in another place this week. It is expected that it will take up to five years before the new system of endorsement can be commenced. That is partly due to the complexity of creating the necessary electronic links between the police, the courts and the DVLA. So the driving record would be established once those links were there. They are not necessarily there at present. In addition to that, once the new system of endorsement is introduced, although the   counterpart will no longer have any statutory functions, it will take the DVLA up to five years to establish alternative procedures for all the other information functions that the counterpart currently provides. In response to the question put by the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, I say that the department has tried   to identify all the persons who at this stage, we envisage, would require access to information held on the driving record. However, when we implement the new system of endorsement, it may become apparent that there are other people who require access for the system to work, hence the reference to other prescribed persons in new Section 97A(2)(e). What people may eventually need to have access to the driving record? District and borough councils request applicants to declare any endorseable offences, and they   inspect applicants’ driving licences to confirm their statements. So, local authorities could benefit from direct access to the database. Another organisation could be the military, as the Secretary of State does not have the power to share data directly from the driver record with the MoD. Future direct access to the driving record may therefore be required to check that people who are going to drive for the MoD have the necessary entitlements and have not been disqualified. Those are two examples of organisations that could come under the reference to other prescribed persons in the paragraph. In its first report of the current Session, the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee commented that, in view of the potential significance of the power to extend the categories that we have talked about, the affirmative procedure should apply. The noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, said that it was a step change and that therefore that procedure might be necessary. We fully understand the view of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, and we are happy to make an amendment so that the affirmative, rather than the negative, procedure will apply. That will be achieved by Amendment No. 26. Schedule 2 to the Bill contains legislative amendments about the endorsement of driving records in the case of unlicensed drivers and certain foreign drivers. Amendment No. 27 will correct a minor drafting omission by inserting an amendment to Schedule 2. The amendment will amend Section 30 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, which relates to the modification of penalty points where a fixed penalty is also in question. Although Section 30 of that Act has been repealed in Scotland by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2004, it still has effect in England and Wales. It is therefore necessary to amend Section 30 to   ensure that it takes account of the provisions introduced by the Bill concerning the new system of endorsement. The amendment will insert a new paragraph 4A into Schedule 2 that amends Section 30 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 to insert references to a person’s driving record and to Sections   57A and 77A of that Act, which are to be inserted by this Bill. I hope that in view of that explanation the noble Lord will withdraw Amendment No. 24, not move Amendment No. 25 and support Amendments Nos. 26 and 27.