Clause 39
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Stephen Ladyman (Minister of State, Department for Transport; South Thanet, Labour)
Like the rest of the Committee, I hope that you had a good Easter, Sir Nicholas. You will not be surprised to learn that I shall advise the Committee to resist the amendments. There are legitimate concerns that driving instructors might have about the release of information about them. Obviously, I understand that they would be concerned if personal information were released. That clearly is not our intention. I can also see that they might have legitimate concerns if we published raw data about their performance that was out of context and did not enable consumers to make sensible choices. That is clearly not our intention. We want to be able to provide objective information to individuals who wish to purchase training so that they can ensure that they do so from an appropriate person.
I readily accept that the approved driving instructors and some of the people who represent them have not felt that the Driving Standards Agency has properly engaged with them on some issues in the past. I have spoken to the new chief executive about that and she and I are determined to put that right and to have a much better relationship with those organisations and with approved driving instructors in the future. We want to take them with us and to ensure that they understand why we are attempting to drive the sector forward and how we intend to do it.
We intend that any information we publish should be thoroughly discussed with all sides of the industry, including the organisations mentioned by the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond). We want to construct a way of publishing that data that takes account of people’s very real concerns. As far as personal information is concerned, those individuals already enjoy the protection of the Data Protection Act. Nothing in the Bill will take that right from them.
The amendments would make the whole clause redundant. Its purpose is to give us an enabling power so that, when we and the industry devise the best way of producing statistics on performance, people can make good judgments about who is good and who is bad, who is effective and who is ineffective, and who is providing the best training service. We want to make that information publicly available so that people can make those choices. If the amendments were accepted, we would not be able to provide that information. We would not even be able to provide information about the availability of trainer assistants who are there to help people who are deaf or have other special needs and require the services of an assistant when they are training to drive. It seems entirely reasonable that we put that information in the public domain. The Driving Standards Agency is collecting it anyway, and it is appropriate that we make it available to the public, but in a form that the public can understand and that does not treat unfairly a driving instructor who concentrates on more difficult cases. The information will need to be published in context.
I give the hon. Gentleman an absolute assurance that we will consult thoroughly on what the information will consist of, how it will be published and in what context. In order to utilise the power we will, at some point, have to come back to the House for its approval of the necessary regulations. I hope that, with that promise and assurance, the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the amendment and the Committee will allow clause 39 to stand part of the Bill.