Road Safety Bill [HL]

I have good news for my noble friend. Those amendments seek to reintroduce various provisions relating to the enforcement of drivers’ hours rules that were included in Schedule 5 of the previous Road Safety Bill introduced last November, as my noble friend rightly said. We certainly needed to modify the existing enforcement framework for drivers’ hours rules in order to reflect the imminent introduction of new technology for recording drivers’ activities—the digital tachograph—and to tighten-up existing powers in the light of experience. So, in principle the Government support this amendment. However, the changes that they seek have been put in place. They had to be in place by early August when we expected the first digital tachograph equipment in vehicles to enter service. Because of that, the Government decided to achieve these changes through secondary legislation instead, using its powers under the European Communities Act 1972. Regulations to that effect, based on Schedule 5 of the previous Bill mentioned by my noble friend, were laid before Parliament on 13 July and came into force on 5 August. I hope, in view of this explanation, that the noble Viscount will withdraw his amendment.