Clause 11 - Financial penalty deposits
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend; that is exactly the purpose of the amendment.
Amendment No. 50 is merely consequential on amendment No. 49, so I shall turn to our other amendments. We could have a long discussion about the payment of the appropriate amount to the Secretary of State, and the words
“in a manner specified in an order made by him”.
As I said, we see no reason why some detail on that could not be put into the Bill. The offence is serious, and the Government ought to have the opportunity to take a proper deposit that would cover a number of circumstances. A maximum of £2,500 would do that.
We could clarify the means through which the Government took the money. They could take cash—cash is what it is, unless it is counterfeit; we shall assume that it would not be. They could take bank-backed funds, making it perfectly possible for a visitor from overseas to present a traveller’s cheque or show a bank-accredited deposit note. Equally, it would be possible to use a debit or credit card, which will be relatively instantaneous; the Government could be sure of getting the funds. They could also receive a cleared UK cheque.
The Secretary of State would wish to take the payment of the appropriate amount by those methods, so we see no reason why the Minister should be uncertain about whether they should be in the Bill. I look forward to hearing from him about the other methods through which he would wish the deposit to be taken, and to his argument—or not—on why we should leave the maximum, which we suggest should be £2,500, to be decided by secondary legislation.