Queen’s Speech

My Lords, having listened to noble Lords’ speeches, I think that on reflection I could have spoken yesterday; none the less there are some matters of concern that I should be raising, so I shall do so today. On 20 November a consultation paper was published on improving compliance with road safety laws. Despite the fall in the number of road deaths in statistics most recently published, we cannot be complacent because further reductions are possible and, indeed, preferable. Most people acknowledge that inappropriate speed, not wearing seat belts and drinking and driving continue to contribute to the number of deaths and injuries. It is interesting to note that 700 deaths involved speed, 565 were not wearing seat belts and 460 involved driving while under the influence of alcohol. All the available evidence concludes that a blood alcohol level in excess of 50mg per 100ml adversely affects the ability to drive safely. I very much hope that the Government will, at long last, take appropriate steps to reduce the limit from 70mg. However, I am delighted to note that road blocks are being considered to catch and deter drink drivers. They would also enable the police to arrest drivers committing other offences that may not even be connected with driving or a motor vehicle. Random breath testing has been widely adopted in Australia and has helped reduce drink driving. I very much hope that road blocks will be set up frequently and will be operated at all times of the day, as the effects of alcohol on driving can be apparent for a long time into the following day. If the Government were to legislate for the immediate confiscation of the driving licence of people who fail an evidential breath test or who are high-risk offenders, it could well reduce the likelihood of such people driving before coming to court. Drivers should be required, as in many other countries, to have their driving licence with them at all times. I am led to believe that groups of people, usually young people, going to have a drink frequently nominate someone who has consumed no alcohol to drive them home but then give that person class B or class C drugs to consume, thinking that they are not as bad as alcohol. In that case, the driver's ability to drive is affected by drugs, not alcohol. I am delighted to note that that is being investigated as part of the consultation. The consultation also refers to remedial training and testing. That is to be praised because it is not being used effectively at the moment. Intelligent speed adaptation is a system that can prevent drivers exceeding the speed limit. It is being developed and tested at the moment. I drove such a vehicle some years ago in its infancy. The speed limit can be exceeded by a certain action, but overriding the technology is noted within the system and can be downloaded, if required. Analysis of future accidents has concluded that there would be a minimum reduction of 10 per cent in fatal accidents, 6 per cent in serious injuries and 3 per cent in slight injuries if ISA were used. Those are considerable reductions in human and financial terms. What steps are being taken to produce a digital map showing every speed limit on every road in the country to enable this technology to be fully developed? The Driving Standards Agency has a monopoly on driver training and controls the entry of instructors into the industry, the exit of instructors who fail to pass their check test and the standard of ability required for a member of the public to pass a driving test. In no other areas is it responsible—apart from its responsibility for statistics on accidents and fatalities on our roads. Within their first two years of motoring, people aged 16 to 29 are responsible for 42 per cent of fatalities on our roads. Should the DSA not concentrate its abilities on raising and controlling standards and let national associations issue certificates to train people to drive? Learning has always taken place before long-term retention by being able to read and research a topic with assistance from qualified individuals. Publishing the question bank does not encourage long-term retention and should therefore be abandoned so that candidates who wish to learn to drive study the whole syllabus and work through a series of workbooks to understand and gain long-term knowledge for safer driving. The DSA should channel its efforts towards the assessment of driving ability and let qualified instructors certify the manoeuvres prior to the driving test, thereby allowing more time in the driving test for examiners to assess driving ability. When the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill passed through this House, I had two amendments accepted that were not, strictly speaking, to do with organised crime. With that in mind, I draw attention to a matter that could be included in the police and crime Bill rather than waiting until a more suitable Bill comes along. The Highways Agency has automatic number plate recognition cameras—ANPR—on the strategic network, but current legislation does not permit it to share data with the police. The agency’s system batches number plate readings, encrypts the data and sends them back every five minutes, and the information is automatically deleted after two weeks. Police systems send data back in a matter of seconds and they are stored for a year. Therefore, if data were shared, changes would have to be made. However, such changes would cost a fraction of the price of rebuilding and replicating the whole infrastructure. Until the end of 2010, the Highways Agency ANPR is contracted to Serco, which effectively owns the data. At the end of that contract, it could be appropriate for the ownership of the cameras to be transferred to the police, who could then provide the Highways Agency with the data it requires and have immediate access to the information for crime purposes. I ask the Minister whether due consideration from a financial and operational viewpoint could be given to adding a suitable amendment to the police and crime Bill? I forgot to declare my interest: I am involved in roads policing at the sharp end. The noble Lord, Lord Tanlaw, has on more than one occasion brought to your Lordships’ attention the advantages of bringing forward our standard time by one hour so that we are at GMT plus one hour in the winter and GMT plus two hours in the summer. It is estimated that 100 lives would be saved every year by adopting this change. It would therefore be beneficial if it were applied for an experimental period so that drivers could experience the benefits of lighter evenings. At the least, a comprehensive study into the likely beneficial effects should be commissioned. Saving lives is important, and this proposal will not go away because it will save lives. We all laugh and think how stupid it is that a tree has to be cut down in order to nullify the possibility of a conker falling on to somebody's head or that a gardener who has tended a flower bed in a village for many years has to have an assessment about the possibility of having an accident. However, a report by the Transport Committee in the other place drew attention to the fact that the vast majority of work-related deaths are not examined by the Health and Safety Executive purely because they occur on the roads. Why is the HSE not being required to be much more active in recording and investigating work-related road casualties rather than being the laughing stock of so many people?