Road Safety Bill [HL]

The noble Earl, Lord Attlee, says that the police have excellent driving schools. All I can say is that their results are pretty dismal. Police cars manage to kill several hundred people every year. There was an article in the Times yesterday about Chief Superintendent Les Owen, who led the anti-speeding campaigns in London. He was given a written warning for allowing his police driver to do 86 mph in a 50-mph zone. The irony is that the poor old driver was given a £250 fine and six penalty points, which was reduced to three on appeal, and the chief superintendent received a written warning. If the police want to have any credibility when driving, they must set an example. This kind of attitude—and I can quote several incidents in Oxfordshire that I have witnessed in the past year or two—is about the worst possible example that they can give to the general public. I think that there is an argument for tabling an amendment on Report that states that police drivers must obey all traffic regulations except, possibly, when responding to emergency calls. I do not think that this applies to ambulances or fire brigades because they seem to behave responsibly, but I cannot say. There are obviously some very good police drivers but there are enough bad drivers around to give the force a very bad name. So I am not sure whether the answer is that the new Police Complaints Authority should have a role in ensuring proper driving standards among the police or whether it is a management issue, but this is a serious matter of concern that is not doing the police any good.