Clause 10 - Financial penalty deposits
Road Safety Bill
10:30 am
Viscount John Thurso (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland (And Transport), Scotland; Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Liberal Democrat)
I am interested in the hon. Gentleman's amendment and I have the same broad questions. Paragraph 39 of the explanatory notes says:
''The effect of these provisions is to provide a means of enforcement against offenders who avoid payment . . . by not having a satisfactory address in the United Kingdom.''
At the briefing there was mention of 44,000 such offences. I had understood them to be camera offences. The clause will have no impact on anybody trapped by a camera, because they will not be stopped. I hope that the Minister will confirm that.
The Library briefing says that, broadly speaking, 85 per cent. of offences are now detected by cameras as opposed to the police. If 44,000 represents 85 per cent., something close to 8,000 would represent the remaining 15 per cent. If my maths are right, a £60 fixed payment would produce less than £500,000 in income. We are talking about only a small number of offences and a small amount of money.
We cannot discriminate against foreigners, however, so any legislation must cover UK citizens too. I am therefore interested in the impact of a deposit on a UK citizen. If the police stop somebody at present, presumably they try to ascertain an address. If they are satisfied with the address, the person is released. Presumably the clause does not change that: the police will still release them. If the police are not satisfied with the address, they may take the person to a police station to make further inquiries; they will not simply release them. Presumably that will continue. The only change that I can foresee for British people would be in the case of somebody who could not prove their identity but had sufficient cash on them to pay the deposit. It seems to me that somebody who cannot prove their identity but has cash is probably quite a suspicious person, but they appear to be the only ones who will benefit from the clause.