New Clause 19 - Amendment of Road Traffic ch3Act 1988
Road Safety Bill
5:00 pm
Viscount John Thurso (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland (And Transport), Scotland; Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Liberal Democrat)
I was trying to paraphrase to keep the discussion short. The Department has commissioned Loughborough university to update a cost-benefit analysis of making ECE 104 mandatory. Furthermore, publication of that analysis is expected in February 2005. However, we know that the cost of the tape has gone down, as has the time taken to put the tape on, while the estimated cost of road deaths has gone up, so the cost-benefit ratio is clearly improving. There is a strong case for ECE 104 becoming mandatory. It is a simple, relatively cheap measure that would save some lives on our roads. I commend it to the Government and hope that the Minister will consider it sympathetically.