Clause 34 - Penalty points
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)
That is very good news.
The courses are now being extended to the courts, so we are keen to find out why only serious offenders who already have seven points can apply for them. Surely the progression that we discussed earlier is equally important. We should encourage all individuals to be responsible users and should give them an opportunity to attend a retraining course. Surely someone who has only three points would benefit from such a course as much as someone who has seven. It seems sensible to us to try to nip what is irresponsible, bad driving rather than criminal activity in the bud well before someone gets to a massive seven penalty points.
Therefore, I should be interested to hear why the Minister wants to set the level at seven. Will it be simply a matter of resource?