New clause 4 - CAUSING DEATH OR SERIOUS INJURY BY NEGLIGENT DRIVING
Road Safety Bill
3:11 pm
Mr Christopher Chope (Shadow Minister, Environment and Transport; Christchurch, Conservative)
Since the hon. Gentleman went out of his way to try to insult me, I simply say that it is regrettable that the Halliday review took two and a half years to report. If the report had been dealt with more quickly, the recommendations from that report could have been included in the Bill. That is not now possible because of the timing of the report. It means that the change in the law that the hon. Gentleman wants will not be made until a year or more from now.
The hon. Gentleman has not addressed the point about penalties in the appendix to the report. He knows that the previous Home Secretary was against locking up more motorists; he thought that there were already too many motorists in prison. The proposal was that another 800 a year be put in prison. I do not believe, and I do not think that the hon. Gentleman has any reason to believe, that his Government are committed to achieving that. This is an exercise in trying to allay concerns without making any firm, unequivocal commitment.