My Lords, I will first speak on the amendments which propose removing the need to dazzle or distract from the offence. The principal focus of the Bill is to protect transport operators and the general public. While this amendment seeks to help to address the problem, the Government believe that it goes further than is appropriate. The Government aim to be proportionate when we create new criminal offences and we do not want to penalise behaviour that does not present a risk to transport safety. The offence we are creating would specifically address the risk of harm as a result of shining a laser which dazzles or distracts, or is likely to dazzle or distract, a person physically operating a vehicle.
These amendments would go further than that by criminalising activity where there is no risk of harm. The proposed offence would cover shining or directing a laser when it is,
“likely to dazzle or distract”.
This will mean that prosecutors will not necessarily need to prove that the shining of a laser actually dazzled or distracted the person in control of the vehicle, only that it was likely to and therefore potentially risked public safety.
The question was raised about how difficult it would be for the prosecution to show that the person in control of the vehicle was dazzled or distracted. In most cases, we would expect evidence to be available from the person who had control of the vehicle that they were dazzled or distracted. A statement directly from the victim would be strong evidence on this point. On that basis, the Government are not convinced that removing the need to demonstrate that a person has been dazzled or distracted would be proportionate to capture the type of activity we want to deter.
Moving on to the amendments seeking to make it an offence to shine a laser at traffic control installations, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken on this amendment, which clearly has a lot of support on all sides of the House. The Bill has been drafted to deal with the safety risks faced when a laser distracts or dazzles the person in control of a vehicle and therefore does not currently include non-vehicles such as traffic control installations. When we look at laser attacks in aviation, the vast majority of incidents reported are targeting aircraft—1,200 in the last year alone—whereas the number of reported attacks on air traffic control towers averages out at around three per year. That said, air traffic control personnel have an important responsibility in controlling and monitoring the movement of aircraft taking off, landing and manoeuvring on the ground, so I recognise that a laser attack on a person carrying out those duties clearly presents safety concerns and could endanger aircraft.
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Those shining lasers at air traffic control personnel could already face possible prosecution under the endangering an aircraft offence in the Air Navigation Order, which carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment. This has been used before, including in 2014, when three men were given prison terms for shining a laser at aircraft and the air traffic control tower at East Midlands Airport. As the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, highlighted, that attack distracted and blinded the air traffic controllers, putting the lives of passengers and crew of aircraft flying in and out of the airport at risk. However, as was made clear at Second Reading and again today, the requirements for successfully prosecuting offenders under the endangering aircraft offence can sometimes cause difficulties for the Crown Prosecution Service.
I sympathise with these amendments, tabled by a number of noble Lords, and I have already instructed my officials to consider options on this issue. We are having discussions with a number of stakeholders, including the CAA, NATS, BALPA, the UK Flight Safety Committee, as well as the relevant bodies with responsibility for aviation in the Armed Forces, such as the Military Aviation Authority. As has been highlighted by the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, in her amendment, the Bill is cross modal and not limited to aviation. Therefore, we are also considering similar safety concerns that need to be addressed for the control of
traffic in the road, rail and maritime sectors. For that reason, we are also consulting relevant bodies such as the Office of Rail and Road and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
I hope noble Lords will be assured that we are listening to the important points that they have raised and that we are actively looking to find the most sensible solution to deal with this issue, but it is important that this is considered carefully and that we get it right. I hope noble Lords will be reassured and will not press their amendments at this stage.