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Mr. Heath: I am obviously delighted to hear that. The proposal was suggested by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety and is eminently sensible. If the Minister returns with an amendment that not only does what I want her to do in the context of the new clause, but perhaps fills some other gaps too, I shall be extremely pleased, and I hope that she will give me appropriate credit on Report. On that basis, there is no reason for me to detain the Committee further on the new clause.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 131 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
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Clause 132
Payments by Secretary of State to police authorities in relation to the prevention, detection and enforcement of certain traffic offences
Mr. Heath: I beg to move amendment No. 196, in clause 132, page 98, line 18, at end insert—
'Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (c. 27)
section 25(5) (pedestrian crossing regulations)'.
The Chairman: With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments: No. 195, in clause 132, page 98, line 22, at end insert—
'section 36(1) (drivers to comply with traffic signs)'.
Government amendment No. 36.
No. 200, in clause 133, page 99, line 15, at end insert—
'Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (c. 27)
section 25(5) (pedestrian crossing regulations)'.
No. 199, in clause 133, page 99, line 19, at end insert—
'section 36(1) (drivers to comply with traffic signs)'.
Government amendment No. 37.
Mr. Heath: I hope that I have as much luck with this group of amendments, which are also designed to plug holes in the Bill without diverting in any way from the Government's intentions. The basic principle is to deal with drivers contravening advanced stop boxes for cyclists and other traffic signs in relation to the cost recovery scheme and, similarly, to allow fines for drivers failing to obey zebra and pelican crossing rules to be included in that scheme. That seems an eminently sensible suggestion and I commend it to the Minister.
Caroline Flint: Automatic number-plate recognition has given us an effective new tool to tackle serious traffic offences on our streets. I have had the opportunity to see it in action and I recommend that hon. Members look into it. It is a new development and we have only recently been expanding throughout the country the use of ANPR intercept teams at the roadside. A wide range of offences are covered, the most common being serious vehicle documentation and road safety offences—for example, using a mobile phone while driving. The new technology and the teams have significantly increased the detection of those and other offences.
This is about dedicated police intercept teams. An offence consistently detected by ANPR intercept teams is using a handheld mobile phone while driving. That was originally prosecuted under regulation 104 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986. However, the specific offence of breach of requirements to control a vehicle in relation to mobile phones and so on is to be included in the Road Safety Bill via an insertion in section 42 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Through an oversight, that offence was omitted from the original list of offences in relation to which police ANPR intercept teams are able to hypothecate at clause 132(3), hence it is subject to a Government amendment. A similar amendment has been tabled in respect of the list of offences
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applicable to Scotland at clause 133(3). The Government seek to ensure that the strict offence criteria are met before a police force can hypothecate fixed penalty revenue generated through ANPR.
I understand why the Liberal Democrats want to push additional offences, but I have had discussions with those involved in developing the policy on ANPR and I think that they feel that the offences that they currently target are appropriate, so at this stage we cannot accept the other offences being added to the list. ANPR is in its infancy and we want to ensure that the focus on the current group of offences is not diluted by widening the pool at this stage. Obviously, however, we keep these areas under review. Who knows? In future, as technology develops and perhaps the police carry out more of this work, we may return to the matter. It is proposed that the Secretary of State or, in Scotland, Scottish Ministers may by order amend the list of offences in subsection (3) to add, modify or omit any entries. Those will be closely scrutinised.
With that explanation, I ask the hon. Gentleman to withdraw the amendment.
Mr. Heath: Well, Dame Marion, you win some, you lose some. That is a shame, because I think that the Government will want to come back and add these offences to the list, and there are strong arguments for doing so. They make provision for the most vulnerable road users—pedestrians and cyclists—and would be a very appropriate use of the technology. They would allow us to be at least relatively certain that people will not commit offences in places where others are otherwise put in great danger—in places where they are trying to cross the road or use cyclist stop boxes, but where motorists may have scant regard for their safety. My prediction is that the Government will eventually want to add these offences to the list. I gave them the opportunity to do so, and I wish that they had taken it up, but they have not, so there we are. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Amendment made: No. 36, in clause 132, page 98, line 26, leave out 'and 104' and insert ', 104 and 110'.—[Caroline Flint.]
Clause 132, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 133
Payments by Scottish Ministers to police authorities etc. in relation to the prevention, detection and enforcement of certain traffic offences
Amendment made: No. 37, in clause 133, page 99, line 23, leave out 'and 104' and insert ', 104 and 110'.—[Caroline Flint.]
Clause 133, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.
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New Clause 28
Corresponding Scottish offence
'(1) A person commits an offence if he enters, or is on, any designated Scottish site without lawful authority.
(2) A ''designated Scottish site'' means a site in Scotland—
(a) specified or described (in any way) in an order made by the Secretary of State or by the Scottish Ministers, and
(b) designated for the purposes of this section by the order.
(3) The Secretary of State may only designate a site for the purposes of this section if it appears to him that it is appropriate to designate the site in the interests of national security.
(4) The Scottish Ministers may only designate a site for the purposes of this section if—
(a) it is comprised in Crown Land; or
(b) it is comprised in land belonging to Her Majesty in Her private capacity or to the immediate heir to the Throne in his private capacity.
(5) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that he did not know, and had no reasonable cause to suspect, that the site in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed was a designated Scottish site.
(6) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction—
(a) to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or
(b) to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale,
(7) For the purposes of subsection (1), a person who is on any designated Scottish site without lawful authority does not acquire lawful authority by virtue of being allowed time to leave the site.
(a) ''site'' means the whole or part of any building or buildings, or any land, or both;
(b) ''Crown land'' means land in which there is a Crown interest.
(9) For this purpose ''Crown interest'' means an interest belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown.'.—[Caroline Flint.]
Brought up, read the First and Second time, and added to the Bill.
New Clause 29
Designated Scottish sites: access
'(1) Section 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (asp 2) (access rights) does not apply to land in respect of which a designation order is in force.
(2) The Secretary of State may take such steps as he considers appropriate to inform the public of the effect of any designation order made by him.
(3) The Scottish Ministers may take such steps as they consider appropriate to inform the public of the effect of any designation order made by them.
(4) The steps referred to in subsections (2) and (3) may include, in particular, displaying notices on or near the site to which the order in question relates.
(5) But the Secretary of State or (as the case may be) the Scottish Ministers may only—
(a) display any such notice, or
(b) take any other steps under subsection (2) or (3),
in or on any building or land, if the appropriate person consents.
(6) The ''appropriate person'' is—
(a) a person appearing to the Secretary of State or (as the case may be) to the Scottish Ministers to have a sufficient interest in the building or land to consent to the notice being displayed or the steps being taken, or
(b) a person acting on behalf of such a person.
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(7) In this section a ''designation order'' means an order under section [Corresponding Scottish offence].'—[Caroline Flint.]
Brought up, read the First and Second time, and added to the Bill.
New Clause 30
Parental compensation orders
'Schedule (Parental compensation orders) is to have effect.'.—[Ms Blears.]
Brought up, and read the First time.
Ms Blears: I beg to move, that the Clause be read a Second time.
I do not know whether Liberal Democrat Members have any comments to make on the new clause, but I simply wanted to say that my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside gave an undertaking that we would introduce it at this stage. Basically, it proposes a compensation order in cases, so that parents of children under 10 can be ordered to pay compensation if their children have stolen or damaged property.
There are about 4,000 cases every year in which children under 10 cause significant damage, and we want to ensure that the courts can take action in those circumstances. They will take into account parental means and can make orders to pay compensation by instalments. Of course, it will always be necessary to consider the views of the victim, but the likely effect on the child and their family circumstances will also be taken into account. Often, orders will be taken in conjunction with intervention programmes to try to ensure that the behaviour is not repeated. Therefore an order is not simply a punishment; it is also a way of ensuring that parents take responsibility for the children's behaviour and that we limit the damage done to other families.
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