My Lords, in moving Amendment 156, I will also speak to Amendment 163.
First, I must declare my interest, particularly for these amendments. I am the co-president of London Councils, the body that represents all 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation. I am also a vice-president of the Local Government Association.
Amendment 163 is the substantive amendment. It seeks to start the legislative process that would enable London borough councils and/or Transport for London to enforce speed limits of 30 mph or below—I have in mind the 20 mph speed limits in particular—on roads for which they have responsibility and, if they so wish, to apply to the Secretary of State and receive consent.
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This proposed measure has the support of all 32 London boroughs, and thus the support of all three political parties governing in London and, of course, of the City of London, which has no party-political control. Personally, I believe that this measure should apply to the whole country, but this proposal has come particularly from the London boroughs, where perhaps we have a greater intensity of 20 mph speed zones and 20 mph limits than other cities have yet.
London and many other cities are seeking to achieve zero road deaths and serious injuries—none at all—by 2041. Speed has been highlighted as a major factor in contributing to serious injury and deaths on roads, and many London boroughs have introduced 20 mph speed limits on some of their roads. Indeed, some boroughs have designated all their borough roads 20 mph speed zones.
These lower speed limits are generally very popular with local residents, and there is some evidence that they have some effect on speed, but not nearly as much as they should. The main reason for that is that there is little enforcement. Those drivers minded to drive too fast know that there is very little likelihood that they will be caught. According to TfL speeding data, in 2019-20 on all roads across the whole of London, 214,409 speeding offences were detected that led to enforcement action. On first hearing, that might sound quite a lot but, actually, set against the 2.5 billion car journeys in London alone each year, it represents an enforcement level of just 0.0086%. That is not a criticism of the police: there are some excellent examples in London and, I am sure, all over the country, of the police working closely with local authorities and local residents on speed enforcement in 20 mph zones. However, police resources are very stretched and they rightly have other priorities. Indeed, it would not improve the image of the Metropolitan Police at all if the force spent more of its time visibly enforcing low speed limits rather than doing many other things for which it is currently being criticised.
If the Government share the objective to achieve a significant reduction in deaths and serious injuries on the roads of our cities, they must give local authorities the tools they need to carry out effective civil enforcement. I stress the word “effective”: it is vital that civil enforcement is not seen as reducing the seriousness of speeding offences or the severity of the penalties. That means retaining the penalties, including penalty-charge notices, points on licences, speed-awareness courses and so on. I recognise that the thought of local authorities becoming involved with such an emotive issue as driving licences, penalty points and endorsements raises concerns, not least for local authorities themselves.
I made my first speech from the Front Bench in this House on 11 January 1995 on the subject of parking in London. After a long campaign at that time, London boroughs had just taken over responsibility for parking enforcement in London from the Metropolitan Police. Believe me, parking in London can be just as emotive as speeding in London. I was then the only leader of a London borough council eligible to speak in your Lordships’ House, and I learned in that first speech from the Front Bench just what it must be like when Ministers have to defend what most of us think of as the indefensible. Therefore, I understand the position, but I can only repeat what I said in that debate: it made sense that local authorities, which had to implement the restrictions, should also have the power and the responsibility to enforce those restrictions. The same applies with low-speed roads and zones.
There is not time in this short debate—I am not a lawyer—to deal properly with all the concerns, but let me refer briefly to two of them, frequently mentioned. The first is legal scrutiny; the other is money.
With regard to legal scrutiny, I would argue that the current civil procedures are more robust than those under the criminal system. For instance, under civil enforcement, the driver has the benefit of an internal council or TfL appeals process and the ability to appeal to an independent legal adjudication service. At present, the criminal process takes up valuable court time and is resource intensive.
The other argument so often heard is that it would be a cash cow for local authorities to milk the motorist—the same argument that is so often made about parking. First, we should remember that, in this case, motorists will be paying the fine only because they were caught breaking the law by speeding and possibly endangering the lives of others. Such drivers are not the victims. As with parking, income from speeding enforcement will not go into a council’s general coffers. By law, it must be used for transport-related purposes, in this instance particularly to meet the costs of more effective speed enforcement.
I recognise that this raises some complex and controversial issues, but the objective is simple and demanding: to reduce deaths and injuries on our roads, particularly our urban roads, through more effective speeding enforcement. I ask the Minister whether the Government share that objective—as I am sure he must do. If they do, will he commit to working with London Councils and others to bring it about? I beg to move.