Road Safety Bill [HL]

I am grateful for the customary way the noble Lord, Lord Tanlaw, has introduced this amendment. On the question of children in the morning, drivers of vehicles are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning, but in the evening they are tired and make mistakes. The noble Lord, Lord Tanlaw, talked about votes. I would have thought this was a vote-winner. It is beneficial for everyone. The noble Earl, Lord Mar and Kellie, talked about the problem of Stornaway. We understand the problem, but the amendment does not alter the number of hours of daylight they have in Stornaway in the winter. They do not have many hours, full stop. I am sure the Minister will point out other difficulties than the road safety aspect. He nods his head. There are advantages outside road safety as well, however; for instance, leisure. September is a nice month of the year—the weather is nice—but it gets dark at eight o’clock, which means it is not such a good time to go on holiday. If we adopted the noble Lord’s amendment, it would get dark at nine o’clock, not eight, which would be good for business. Indeed, when we do business, we are adrift from our continental partners. I cannot see many negative aspects of adopting this amendment. Yes, there will be some more accidents in the morning, but there will be fewer in the evening. There is a thought that we will save about 400 casualties per annum.