Clause 21 - Causing death by driving: unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured drivers
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
12:45 pm
Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)
Before I came to the Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire and I visited the Minister, who was generous with his time. He gave us a preliminary briefing on the Bill and some explanations to our questions.
We were uncertain about the exact intention behind clause 21, and, if I understood correctly, the Minister gave us the following explanation: if a person is in, or driving, a car that is uninsured, unlicensed or while disqualified, and that car is in an accident that results in the death of another, whether or not any causal behaviour was attached to the car or driver, that person would be charged with causing death. The Bill effectively says that the death would not have occurred had that vehicle not been on the road, and that therefore the driver or passenger has caused death simply by being in the car.
My hon. Friends and I were slightly perplexed by that explanation, as too were those from whom we took legal advice. Our amendments are part probing and part principled. At the end of the debate, should we have been reassured by the Minister that either some of our misgivings are misconceived or ill understood, or that on reflection he will come some way to compromise with us, I should be happy to withdraw the amendment.
Perhaps I might explain my misgivings with two examples. First, let us take the case of a hard-working Member of Parliament who represents, say, a Scottish constituency, and who, on a Monday, drives to either the train station of the airport, parks his car, travels to London by train or by air and has a hard-working week in London—as I am sure we all do working for the benefit of constituents. On the Thursday, the MP flies home and notices that his insurance expired the day before, resolves in his own mind to renew the insurance in the morning and drives home. On the way home, a group of youths leaving a local pub overtake another car, collide with the MP’s car, hit a wall and spin out of control, causing the death of one of the passengers. Under the Bill, the MP would be charged with causing that death, even thought he did not cause the death, he did not drive carelessly or even dangerously, and there was no intent. If anything he was the victim of the accident, yet he would be charged if the Bill is not amended.
At the moment, it is common practice—as I am sure that the Minister will concede—for the police, in such circumstances, and insurance companies, to allow at least a fortnight, but in some cases, up to a month, for insurance renewal. Equally, it is similar practice to do so for car licences.