Clause 58
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Stephen Ladyman (Minister of State, Department for Transport; South Thanet, Labour)
One’s parents often say, “Be careful what you wish for.” On Second Reading, colleagues on the Opposition Front Bench asked me to consider why we are making this provision in London. I met one of the hon. Gentleman’s colleagues and a constituent of his to discuss a particular issue related to the one that we are discussing. I granted him his wish and considered the issue, and the more I looked at it, the more I came to see why this level of regulation is required in London. I equally came to see that the problem may be not that we are moving to a system of regulation in London but that we do not have the same powers of regulation everywhere else in the country. It is possible that your constituents and mine outside London, Sir Nicholas, are not getting the protection that they deserve.
I have started to put in place discussions inside the Department and with local authorities on whether we need at some point in the future to improve the way in which we regulate services outside London. However, that will be in the future. I cannot see any excuse for our not moving as rapidly as possible to deal with the problem inside London. It was intended for it to be dealt with by the 1998 Act, but unfortunately the lawyers subsequently decided that that Act was insufficiently clear. The amendment simply makes it clear, so that the 1998 Act works in the way in which it was intended to work and can accordingly be enforced. I have to accept that there is an anomaly between London and elsewhere at which we need to start looking sometime in the future, but that is not an excuse for not dealing with the problem in London.