Clause 40 - Fixed penalty offences
Traffic Management Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch, Conservative)
The clause deals with the vexed issue of fixed penalties. Amendment No. 45 would mean that proposed section 95A(2) of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 would be left out. The amendment was tabled to probe the Minister on why
''offences by bodies corporate and Scottish partnerships''
will not be subject to the fixed penalty regime.
Amendment No. 46 would remove the power of the Secretary of State to add fixed penalty offences to the schedule, or delete them from it. In that context, will the Minister explain a bit more about his thinking on which offences should be subject to the fixed penalty regime and which should not? I have severe reservations about the fixed penalty regime. On the face of it, the offences chosen as fixed penalty offences are not the critical ones. I have in mind, for example, the failure to comply with a section 66(1) duty
''to carry on and complete certain street works with all reasonably practicable dispatch''.
That offence carries a maximum penalty of level 5. However, it goes to the heart of what the Bill is about: speeding up work and avoiding undue delay. If the Minister feels that the offence is serious, and that the enforcement authorities should take it seriously but will be inhibited from prosecuting because of the fear that they will face substantial costs and will not get any income from the fines, why is the offence not included in the fixed penalty regime? Does he have it in mind to include it at a later stage—in regulation—when we cannot possibly scrutinise the proposal properly?
In addition, why is the failure to comply with duties under section 71—
''prescribed requirements as to materials and workmanship and performance standards for reinstatements''—
not a fixed penalty offence? It is an important and critical issue. Why is it not subject to fixed penalties, even though other matters that we might regard as rather trivial are?
Can the Minister explain the situation in relation to continuing offences? One of the big bugbears of the motoring public, who are subject to fixed penalty notices, is that they get a sticker on their car because it is parked in the wrong place or has overstayed the time allowed, and then a few minutes or hours later they get another sticker on the car because it is parked in the same place. Can we be sure that the fixed penalty regime will not be used iteratively against people for the same wrongdoing? I would be grateful to hear what the Minister can tell us about that.
The debate on this group of amendments gives us an opportunity to probe the Minister about the thinking behind the fixed penalty regime.