Clause 14 - Alcohol ignition interlocks
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Stephen Ladyman (Minister of State, Department for Transport; South Thanet, Labour)
Both hon. Gentlemen will be glad to know that I share their analysis to a large extent; it is just on the conclusions that I differ. They are both right—it is early days for the technology, and I can give them an absolute assurance that there is no way that the Government will allow widespread use of it without proceeding carefully and step by step, with proper experimentation and proper research to build up the evidence that it is worth while. Clause 14 must be examined in conjunction with clause 15, in which we make it clear that we can implement alco-locks experimentally at some point.
I accept the point made by the hon. Member for Ilford, North (Mr. Scott) that there may well be devices that can fool the current generation of alco-locks, but there will be improvements, and we will make tests and take cognisance of the results.
I encourage hon. Members to remember the constraints under which the Government operate when they need primary legislation. The Bill went through its stages in the previous Parliament but fell because of the general election. For the second year on the run, there is a major slot in the parliamentary timetable to discuss these issues. It may well be several years hence before there is another slot for primary legislation that focuses on road safety, and if we do not today take the powers that we need in order to do such experiments, then, if the rest of Europe and the world start to make progress, we shall not be in a position to take advantage.
We agree that the technology is in many respects untested and a lot of work is needed, but we shall proceed only step by step as we accumulate evidence that it could work. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to take powers today that allow us to be involved in the work.