Queen’s Speech

Viscount Simon Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Simon (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord says that the Government do not want to tell people what to do. I am afraid that I will discuss matters not covered in the gracious Speech where people should be told what to do.

The topic raised more than any other by members of GEM Motoring Assist is the lack of traffic law enforcement on our roads. Many of them think that the move towards automatic enforcement of speed and so on is not matched by enforcement regarding other aspects of bad driving. The recent Transport Select Committee report on roads policing stated that the number of specialised roads policing officers has fallen from 7,104 to 4,356 in the decade starting in 2005. That is a reduction of 38.6% and leads me to state that the number of cars exceeding 100 miles an hour on motorways is quite extraordinary. However, they drive at these speeds in the knowledge that the chances of being stopped are quite remote.

One of my two amendments to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act that were accepted concerned the evidential roadside breath testing kit. It must be about 10 years since this was accepted, but the Home Office has yet to complete type approval of this equipment. This is in contrast to the extremely quick approval of the quite expensive saliva-testing equipment that screens for certain drugs and illegal substances. I just wonder whether the Department for Transport has plans to develop screening equipment for other drugs. Efforts have been made to reduce the legal drink-drive limit to 50 milligrams per 100 millilitres. It is calculated that, if this were done, 25 lives and 95 serious injuries would be saved annually. Can the Government explain why a reduction in the drink-drive limit would be at odds with the current efforts to reduce drink-driving?

There is clear evidence that drivers using mobile phones while driving, both hands-free or hands-held, do so at serious risk to themselves and other road users because of distraction. The person phoning a driver has no idea about the traffic conditions that could cause distraction. I would be delighted if the Government discouraged the use of all phones in cars. Thinking of mobile phones, a large amount of legislation could be changed to allow digitalisation in certain circumstances in order to assist police officers in their duties that currently can be unnecessarily time-consuming.

At the moment, there is a lack of protection for police officers engaged in the pursuit of other vehicles. Tim Rogers of the Police Federation of England and Wales said:

“How concerning is it that, even when driving with advanced training, given and licensed by the College of Policing, our officers are still vulnerable to criminal liability, just for trying to keep communities safe?”.

Protection for officers doing their jobs requires a change in legislation to ensure that they have the confidence to do their job without the fear of being prosecuted in certain circumstances.

There have been numerous changes in how the police operate, and all forces have had to make adjustments due to the funding formula. I wonder whether that now meets the needs of communities across the country. I have my doubts.

Finally, from today, drivers and others are invited to go online and pledge their support for EDWARD—European Day Without A Road Death—which is due on 21 September. This is the day when police forces throughout Europe support the initiatives being promoted by this project. I hope that they are successful in their endeavours.

Queen’s Speech

Viscount Simon Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Simon]

My Lords, we have heard noble Lords give interesting speeches on business and the economy. This reminds me that I never know on which days to speak, because I will not be talking about these matters. I intend to address various matters of concern to road safety experts and the police and on road policing.

There was a programme on BBC Three recently called “Barely Legal Drivers” where, at the beginning, three interesting statements were shown:

“1 in every 3 drivers who die on UK roads is 25 or under … 1 in 10 young people have been in a crash that resulted in death or serious injury … 1 in 5 young drivers has a crash within 6 months of passing their test”.

Things do not change very much, I have to admit, because I had a crash within six months of my passing the driving test. This led to my commencing a long attachment, as a civilian, to the traffic police with whom, over the years, I have taken lots of advanced driving courses.

Keeping inexperienced drivers in mind, it has been suggested that graduated licences could be introduced, putting in place certain requirements as to when they are allowed to drive, the number of passengers carried and probably various other bits and pieces. The insurance industry may require recording devices to be fitted to the cars of inexperienced drivers to see how they are driving. They may well adjust the premiums accordingly; I understand that this is already happening with young lady drivers. However, enforcement could well be a problem as there are some difficult issues and logistical considerations to be made in terms of how much time the police would have to enforce any legislation introduced. With the reduction of fully trained roads-policing officers over quite a number of years, this would not be a priority.

At the end of April, six terrorists were found guilty of serious offences against the mainland with the intention of blowing up towns and causing havoc. It was a roads-policing officer who instinctively decided to stop the vehicle they were driving. In view of his expertise, and that of all roads-policing officers, I wonder what plans the Government have to ensure that adequate funding and support is given to chief constables so that roads-policing receives higher priority, and greater investment in technology to ensure more criminals are caught while on the roads. With better vehicle-mounted technology and investment in skills and officers, criminals on the road will fear the risks and know that they will be caught.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents deduced that the currently used method of defining certain priorities is out of date and that the causes of premature deaths that can be prevented should be an area on which to focus. At all ages, cancers and other preventable diseases eclipse accidents. To put another area of premature death into the arena, accidents kill around 14,000 people in this country every year but only about 2,000 of these deaths occur on the road or in the workplace. So, home and leisure accidents now account for the majority of deaths, but this does not detract from reducing death and injury on our roads. After all, the total cost of each road death is now about £1.6 million, which means that every reduction can be calculated on a financial basis.

On costs, it has been suggested that the purchase of more battery-operated vehicles should be encouraged to reduce emissions. While this is an admirable idea, I wonder how long a battery will last and what it would cost to replace one. I may be wrong, but I have heard that they are very expensive.

In the past two or three years a number of reforms to the police have taken place: the introduction of police and crime commissioners along with pay and pension reforms. Somebody joining the police gets £19,000 a year, yet a new PCSO gets £25,000 a year. What message does this send out? Then there is the potential for the introduction of direct entry at the rank of superintendent, with no experience of policing anticipated. How many people would go to their surgery to be seen by a doctor whose only experience is as a helicopter pilot? These changes, and others that have taken place over the past decade or so, are completely counter to those who label the police as “the last unreformed public service”. In addition, police have to deal with the impact of reforms on other services, particularly in the area of mental health. There are too few areas where places of safety are available on a 24-hour basis to assess individuals who are suffering from mental illness and in need of immediate support. This means that far too many people have to be taken to police cells following their detention under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act due to the lack of an available place of safety.

The next comprehensive spending review is on 26 June. I hope that no further cuts will be made to the police. If there are, there could well be disastrous effects in dealing with the requirements of the public. In order to reduce costs, a few constabularies are working closely together but there are still the same number of chief constables, deputy chief constables and police and crime commissioners within each constabulary. This has led to there being little consistency in approach, with little evidence to demonstrate savings or benefits to the public once these changes have been made.

The Crime and Policing Bill will enable the creation of the police remuneration review body. Police officers are officeholders, independent of state and answerable for their actions to the law. This onerous responsibility brings many restrictions on an officer, not least of which is the fact that they are forbidden in law to take industrial action. The transition from the current national Police Negotiating Board must take into account an officer’s inability to directly influence policy concerning police pay and conditions of service. Mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that officers feel that they will be treated fairly by the Government of the day. A system of appeal that can be influenced by the Police Federation is essential so that the relationship between state and officeholder continues with a common understanding. I would also urge caution with the current proposals to introduce compulsory severance, which could change the independence of the constable. There should be a pause to ascertain the necessity for something drastic, particularly as many no longer see it as necessary. It is the first duty of government to protect its citizens and it is the duty of the Government to be fair to those discharged with this responsibility, the British police service.

Queen’s Speech

Viscount Simon Excerpts

Wednesday 16th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Simon]

My Lords, I feel somewhat out of step with most noble Lords who have spoken in that I will not be talking about financial matters. The proposal to introduce legislation to address the problem of driving under the influence of drugs was not only in the gracious Speech but was mentioned in the newspapers a few days earlier. It had, none the less, been my intention to raise this subject had the proposals not been included in the Government’s legislative programme.

I find it interesting that the Transport Research Laboratory now estimates that drugs are an important factor in a quarter of road deaths. Along with the Department for Transport, the company that produces a drug swipe test carried out the world’s largest trial at the roadside. Almost 100% of the 5,000 drivers stopped agreed to partake in the testing and most saw no problem with being screened in the future. A report was made but the press office at the DfT denied its existence to inquisitive journalists for some years. Why did it do that? I have no idea. Any legislation in this area needs to address those who cause the most harm. At the same time, it should ensure that its provisions can be enforced effectively by efficient use of existing resources and by guaranteeing that it does not become overbureaucratic and overburdensome on officers and the CPS.

Many types of drugs could impair driving ability and care must be given to those that need to be included in any analysis and to determining the appropriate reading for driving legally. It should be remembered that a road vehicle is a lethal weapon and that alcohol or drugs can impair a driver’s reaction. The law does not recognise that when a driver kills someone, and that needs to be changed.

When the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 was passing through this House, one of my amendments was agreed. It enabled an evidential breath test for alcohol to be taken at the roadside and used in court, rather than the driver being taken to a police station where the reading might fall due to the time that has elapsed prior to getting the official reading. The kit for this test has still not been officially approved, despite it already being available to officers. I hope that the drug testing apparatus will be approved immediately; after all, it is being used very successfully in many other countries. To put the problem into perspective, in 2010 the number of drug-driver prosecutions in the UK, which has just been released by the Department of Justice, was 34. During the same period, the number of drivers losing their licences in Germany, where the drug swipe test was used, was 34,000.

Lots of people think that roads policing officers, who used to be called traffic officers until the name was adopted by the Highways Agency, purely give out tickets for exceeding the speed limit, but that is not the case. They are officers at the front line of crime fighting and their specialist skills and knowledge enable them to deter, hunt down and arrest serious criminals. I always think of these officers as police officers first and roads policing officers second, as their arrest rate for non-traffic offences is quite exceptional. Bearing that in mind, with budgets being reduced I wonder whether the proposed training will lead to a reduction in standards. As an aside, although it is somewhat relevant to this, a few years ago I was invited to a police driving school to sit in on the testing of three officers as response drivers and not—I repeat not—as roads policing officers. All three officers passed. I subsequently told the inspector that I would have failed one of them and gave my reasons. He said that I was probably right but that the course had been reduced from three weeks to two.

Training has been reduced on quite a large scale and it is not only the public who might become involved in this reduction. Should something go wrong, the officers might become the subject of investigation. I recall a police pursuit being stopped recently for health and safety reasons purely because the person being chased was not wearing a helmet, and if an accident had occurred the officers could have been temporarily removed from their specialist duties.

When departments are reduced, it is imperative that roads policing skills are not lost and that continual training is maintained in order that officers can deal with fast-roads policing. About 10 years ago, I passed the police’s fast roads course, since when driving conditions have changed. Perhaps I should declare that I am qualified in roads policing. Driving behaviour has changed and visible patrols are vital to maintain the confidence and discipline that led to a reduction in casualties over the past 10 years. However, with the number of roads policing officers and marked police vehicles decreasing, I would not be surprised if those statistics showed an increase in casualties in the near future. It is acknowledged that the threat of being caught is an effective deterrent, whether it be by breathalysers, drug swipe tests or speeding, but they all require trained and experienced officers.

It is interesting that partnership enforcement operations exist to target coaches and heavy goods vehicles. I have attended three of these operations where not only very highly qualified roads policing officers but people from Customs and Excise and VOSA are present. They are very efficient and I just hope that, with the financial cuts, they will be allowed to continue.

We have seen proposals to raise the speed limit from 70 mph to 80 mph and to decrease it from 30 mph to 20 mph in certain areas. Average speed cameras are very effective but they are not everywhere, just as roads policing officers are not everywhere. So how will these changes be enforced? Numerous research and common sense shows that a speed limit raised to 80 mph would result in more collisions and, because of the increased speed, more road deaths and serious injuries. After all, while vehicle design may change the human body does not. This, of course, flies in the face of the DfT’s long-standing commitment to reducing collisions and casualties.

The Ministry of Justice consultation document, Getting it Right for Victims and Witnesses, fails to make any proposals to improve the services offered to victims and witnesses of road deaths. Paragraph 56 says that more needs to be done but fails to make any recommendations. It is proposed that responsibility for the funding of victims’ services will soon be handled by appointed police and crime commissioners, but that will not be underpinned by a set of minimum standards that would ensure a consistent approach across the country. The Road Victims Trust, of which I am a patron, is concerned that the already patchy approach to support victims and witnesses of road deaths will simply be made worse. With pursuits being closely monitored and health and safety at the forefront of senior officers’ minds, will officers, within the bounds of the law, be allowed to follow and stop those who are driving dangerously?

Finally, road casualties and deaths are a national issue that requires a joined-up and co-ordinated response. The Government have a duty to ensure that, with the advent of police commissioners later this year, suitable methods are employed to encourage greater co-operation between government departments, the Department for Transport, the Home Office, the justice department and individual forces to continue to drive down the blight of deaths and injuries on our roads for years to come.