All contents copyright ©, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc., 2003 onwards, unless specified otherwise. All rights reserved.

IMPORTANT: click here to read the DISCLAIMER

Measures to clamp down on irresponsible driving and improve road safety were today reintroduced to Parliament.
  

Britain has one of the best road safety records in the world but the Government is committed to reducing the numbers of people killed and seriously injured on our roads by 40 per cent by 2010 and numbers of children by 50 per cent.
  
The Road Safety Bill continues the Government's commitment to drive down casualties on the road. Measures outlined in the Bill include:

• Powers for a more flexible system of fixed penalties to match the punishment to the severity of the offence. The Department for Transport has consulted on how a system of graduated speeding penalties might be introduced.
   
  

• Ensuring that foreign drivers cannot escape punishment in Great Britain through new powers to issue fixed penalty notices for endorsable offences and to take deposits from offenders who cannot provide a verifiable address.
   
  

• Improving compliance through increased penalties for various safety-related road traffic offences such as driving whilst using a hand held mobile phone, careless and inconsiderate driving and using a vehicle in a dangerous condition.
   
  

• Tackling drink driving through changes to improve take up of the Drink Drive Rehabilitation Scheme and powers to provide for an experimental alcohol ignition interlock scheme. It would also ensure that the most persistent offenders, disqualified for 24 months or longer, must retake their driving test.
   
  

• Clarifying which vehicles can break signed speed limits in emergency situations, such as the police and those carrying donor organs and what driver training would be required.
   
  

• Dealing with poor driving standards by allowing the courts to make increased use of retraining courses for serious offenders and through improvements to driving instruction and testing procedures.
   
  

• Tackling fatigue related accidents by piloting motorway picnic areas.
   
  

• Making various administrative changes to the licensing regime to ensure better security and accuracy of the Driving Licence and prevent "clocking" fraud in vehicles. 

Alistair Darling said:
 

"These measures will tackle bad and dangerous driving whilst making penalties fairer with graduated penalties for speeding.
 
" The UK has one of the best records in the world - the number of road casualties is at its lowest for nearly fifty years - but still more needs to be done and these plans will undoubtedly improve safety and further reduce deaths and injuries on our roads." 

The Bill will be read in Parliament for the first time today and is now subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

Full Outline of Road Safety Bill Proposals

Drink Driving
 

1. Powers to require offenders disqualified for 24 months or more to retake the driving test, this would catch most high blood alcohol content and all repeat drink drive offenders.
 

2. Closure of a loophole whereby High Risk Offenders have cover to drive before completing a DVLA medical test. The period for which a record of an offence under Section 7A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (failing to allow laboratory analysis of a specimen obtained whilst medically unable to consent) can be held by DVLA, will be brought into line with other drink drive offences i.e. from 4 to 11 years.
 

3. Various administrative changes to improve court arrangements and flexible payment of fees to improve the take up of the Drink Drive Rehabilitation Scheme and provide for an experimental alcohol ignition interlock scheme.
 

Speeding
 

4. Introduction of variable fixed penalties for speeding -- changing the range of penalty points from 3-6 to 2-6.
 

5. Banning the carriage or use of safety camera detectors and jammers.
 

6. Giving the Secretary of State power to grant exemptions from speed limits and other traffic regulations will be introduced -- for example organ donor vehicles.
 

Other Bad Driving
 

7. Extending the use of retraining courses to offenders convicted of speeding and careless driving.
 

8. Increasing the maximum penalties for several safety related offences:

• careless driving (fine £2500 to £5000)

• using a vehicle in a dangerous condition (mandatory disqualification for a 2nd offence)

• failing to give identity of driver (was 3 points, now going to 6 points)

• using a mobile phone, or failing to have proper control of a vehicle (was £30 - proposed £60 plus 3 penalty points )

• rationalising fines [to drivers] for children not wearing seatbelts (£500 fine for front and rear -- currently £200 in rear and £500 in front)
   

Driver Training and Testing
 

9. Amendments to the current "one-size-fits-all" scheme for car driving instructors with an ability to introduce schemes targeted to meet the needs of individual sectors e.g. lorries, buses, off-road and fleet driving.
 

10. Allowing the public access to information about the performance of individual instructors, their qualifications and their services.
 

11. Introduction of more flexible powers to extend the user-pays principle to all forms of test and assessment e.g. charge test applicants a fee to rearrange a test appointment.
 

Fatigue
 

12. To pilot motorway rest areas similar to French "aires" as an alternative to traditional Service Areas.
 

Support for Enforcement
 

There are several areas of the Bill that will contribute to enforcement of various road traffic laws, some deal with licensing and insurance, others empower enforcement agencies to deal more flexibly with individual situations and extend the use of fixed penalties.
 

13. Various changes to licensing arrangements for drivers, to allow for administrative charges to be levied in various circumstances (e.g. renewal of a photocard licence) and provision for the recall of old format (i.e. paper) licences.
 

14. Legislation to enable the international exchange of driver and vehicle data to combat driving licence and vehicle crime.
 

15. Legislation to allow mandatory recording of various particulars (mileage, date of [manufacture or first registration] etc.) on the vehicle register to improve accuracy of records and help prevent "clocking" fraud; and to extend the current registration scheme for number plate suppliers from England and Wales to the rest of the UK and make improvements to its enforcement.
 

16. Introduction of a system of graduated fixed penalties for roadworthiness offences and to give adequate enforcement powers to enforcement agents. A deposit scheme and powers to issue fixed penalties to non-GB licence holders will also be introduced to ensure that foreign drivers do not evade punishment by leaving the country before a summons is served.
 

Wider Road Safety Issues
 

The Bill also contains various other wider measures that contribute to the overall programme of improving safety on our roads.
 

17. Powers will be taken to ensure that innovative road safety projects can continue to be developed and built upon with grant from DfT.
 

18. Powers will be taken to regulate the conversion of vehicles to run on alternative fuels e.g. LPG, to ensure conversions are carried out to the required safety and environmental standards.
 

19. Improvements will be made to the enforcing the transport of radioactive materials and the regulation of alternative fuel conversions.
 

20. A potential loophole in the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 will be closed, preventing minicabs in London from evading the current licensing regime.
   

 
[And finally] the Home Office Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 contains measures contained in the last Road Safety Bill legislation (introduced to Parliament on 30 November 2004) to introduce evidential roadside breath testing and better target uninsured vehicles through the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology and data from insurers.
 

Source: UK Department for Transport -- News Release 2005/0055