Orders of the Day — Road Safety Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 February 1966.

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Photo of Mr George Strauss Mr George Strauss , Lambeth Vauxhall 12:00, 10 February 1966

That is arguable, but if we could get a reduction of 16 per cent. I should be very satisfied.

The main argument against the Bill will be, as the right hon. Gentleman has emphasised, that random checks are wrong, are against public policy and would not be as effective as a check upon those people who appear to the police to have, or whom the police suspect of having, too much alcohol in their blood.

First, I will deal with the general principle of whether this is an infringement of individual liberty which is unjustified and whether we should not accept the idea that sober people or those who may be teetotallers should be stopped on the road and put to considerable inconvenience by having to undergo the breathalyser test, and that this is contrary to our traditions of personal freedom and violate our ideas of the extent to which people should be molested by the forces of law and order.

I do not support that view. The principle of spot checks in other matters has been well established and in operation for many years. Spot checks are made on commercial vehicles the whole time. 130,000 such vehicles were stopped last year and the state of their maintenance checked.