Off-Road Vehicles (Registration) Bill
9:30 am
Robert Goodwill (Shadow Minister, Transport; Scarborough and Whitby, Conservative)
I express some disappointment, Mr. Wilshire, that we will not have the pleasure of serving under your chairmanship during what could have been a long Committee stage. However, I express our thanks to the hon. Member for Manchester, Blackley for putting this important issue on the public agenda.
The Minister’s statement shows that the Government are taking the matter seriously. I believe that that it is the correct way forward. As stated on Second Reading by my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr. Paterson), the Bill was like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and many law-abiding users of off-road vehicles would have been brought within the net. That is not to say that the nut does not need cracking; the problem of mini-motos and other antisocial uses of such vehicles needs to be addressed.
It is important to note that an interdepartmental approach is being taken. Where police and local authorities around the country have acted decisively, we have seen that the problem can be addressed. In Coventry, the problem seems to have been handled very well. However, I was in conversation last week with my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies), who told me that the police in his constituency will not chase young people on mini-motos if they are not wearing helmets, because they might be injured if they fell off. The interdepartmental taskforce should look at best practice around the country and decide how that can be disseminated to the authorities in those parts of the country where the problem has not been addressed.
I thank the Minister for keeping me in the loop yesterday, which saved me a lot of work last night and this morning in preparing to debate the amendments. In closing, I thank the hon. Member for Manchester, Blackley, with whom I served on the Transport Committee for 18 months. You might say that we are both Dunwoody’s children—in fact, Mr. Wilshire, possibly all three of us are.