Road Safety (Financial Penalty Deposit) (Appropriate Amount) Order 2009

I understand that, given the way in which the instrument is drafted, it would be up to the officer on the spot to make that judgment. We do not want this to be a silly system. Therefore, we will be encouraging agencies to make considered and sensible decisions about that sort of thing. If it is reasonably practical, the trick is that they will be able to say, ““Yes, we will take your card””, or whatever. I always back away from making absolute assurances because there is bound to be a case somewhere where it does not work. We are trying to make this a workable system. On the point about a vehicle that crashes and so on, that really will be at the discretion of the police. The first objective in those circumstances is to make the road safe and to move the vehicle as required. The noble Lord is right; if the vehicle is a write-off, we are beyond the scheme and people once again will be trying to do what the most practical thing. We believe that the £900 is roughly comparable with overseas schemes. Once again, this is very much the first stage and we want to see how it works. I have touched on penalty points for foreign licences. We are sensitive to this, but we can only do so much. A point was made about whether a £30 fixed penalty is properly comparable with a bus-lane fine of £120. I am very pleased that the noble Lord offends on neither base. I seek to offend on neither base as well. However, these instruments do not address that particular balance, so I can go no further on that. The most powerful point is nothing to do with the order. It is clear that if a vehicle is in a dangerous condition, is loading or the driver is fatigued, which are the key things that we worry about with these people, the vehicle will not be able to operate until the issue is remedied. That will be a powerful, positive factor in improving road safety in the United Kingdom and addressing some people’s real fear that some foreign operators flagrantly flout the law. There are quite a lot of devices to stop that. I am delighted that both noble Lords welcome the order in principle. There will be a review after we have experience of its implementation. Motion agreed. Committee adjourned at 5.41 pm.