Clause 78 - Prescribed limit

Part of Railways and Transport Safety Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:45 pm on 27 February 2003.

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Photo of Anne McIntosh Anne McIntosh Shadow Minister (Transport) 4:45, 27 February 2003

I read the amendment with interest. I can see where the hon. Gentleman is coming from. The Secretary of State said on Second Reading that the Government wanted the same blood alcohol limit as for motoring, which is 80 mg per 100 ml. We have always considered that a higher standard is right for road transport because that is the transport context in which most injuries or deaths occur annually. Almost 1,000 people a year are killed on the roads and many more are injured. We regret that it was not considered appropriate to include road safety in the provisions, since statistics show that there is substantially more chance of being injured on the road than on railways, at sea or in an air accident.

I hope that we can keep the limits under review. We are minded for the moment to support the

Government limits, rather than to support the lower limits in the amendment, with the proviso that, curiously, there will be some discrepancy. We have advocated equal levels of safety for all modes of transport, but there will now be three different sets of alcohol limits according to whether sea, road or air travel is used. I wonder whether the Government are comfortable with that. I am sure that the amendment is intended as a probing one, given that I am sure that the hon. Member for Bath understands that disasters on recreational craft, such as the Marchioness, are very rare. We do not want to go overboard.