Clause 10 - Financial penalty deposits
Road Safety Bill
10:15 am
Mr Christopher Chope (Shadow Minister, Environment and Transport; Christchurch, Conservative)
In addition to moving amendment No. 23, I shall speak to amendment No. 24, and my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire has something to say about his amendment No. 46. Amendment No. 23 would limit the ambit of clause 10 to vehicles that were not registered in the UK. Amendment No. 24 would limit its ambit to people who were committing an offence or had committed an offence when they were not ordinarily resident in the UK. I tabled those amendments to test why the Government were making the ambit of the financial penalty deposit system set out in the clause much wider than the ostensible justification for it suggests. The justification for the system is that it will enable us to get even with all the foreign lorry drivers who are breaking the UK traffic laws with impunity.
Interestingly, at the helpful briefing provided by the Minister and his officials, it was said that 44,000 offences by foreign vehicle drivers went unpunished in the last year for which figures were available, which gives some idea of the extent of the problem. It was also made clear that nothing in the clause would give immediate relief, because there is nothing in it to ensure that the driver of a lorry that has triggered a speed camera, for example, at a site where nobody is present to stop him, will pay the penalty before he returns to the continent, whence most of the foreign lorries emanate.
The Government are taking extra powers in the clause, which can be used against UK citizens and residents and people with UK-registered vehicles, ostensibly to deal with the foreign lorry drivers who are breaking our speed limits with impunity and committing other offences against the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986. However, we understand that there will not be much opportunity to catch those drivers and that the financial deposit system will be of only limited use. In that case, why are the Government extending the scheme to local residents as well as to foreigners?