Late change seeks camera fine safeguards

08 November 2006

The Government was forced to change its Road Safety Bill this week to reassure MPs that revenue from fines levied on speeding motorists caught on cameras will in future be spent on road safety.
Transport minister Stephen Ladyman introduced a new clause at the 11th hour after a clash between the Lords and the Commons threatened to kill off the Bill just before Parliament was prorogued.
This will empower ministers to issue regulations stipulating that payments must be used for road safety purposes.
Dr Ladyman argued the new powers were unnecessary because, from next April, all revenue from fines will go to the Treasury, and then be repaid to councils in the form of road safety grants. This will yield councils £110M a year for the next four years.
But, after peers had forced through their own amendment, Dr Ladyman brought forward his clause which the Lords accepted. ‘The legislation is at a very late stage, and we are under an obligation to save a vital Bill,’ he told MPs.
‘The key point is that none of us wants cameras to be deployed simply for the purpose of raising money and increasing income. In the event that the powers were used, they would be contingent on having a mechanism to ensure that the regulations neither created incentives for partnerships to drive up the level of fines to secure additional income nor penalised partnerships that succeeded in improving compliance with speed limits.’
Welcoming the concession, Tory transport spokesman Lord Hanningfield, leader of Essex County Council, said, ‘Speed cameras have been a very effective way of saving lives and reducing speed. We want to see more money reinvested in road safety, sometimes through fairly minor measures. The highways engineers to whom I have spoken will be very pleased to see this part of the legislation come into operation.’ A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said: ‘We will of course wish to evaluate the new funding arrangements for safety cameras and other local road safety work, which will apply from 1 April 2007, after those arrangements have had a chance to settle down.’
Peers backed down in another clash over demands for the Government to require heavy goods lorries to display retro-reflective tapes to reduce night-time accidents.
The Government insists the UK must wait for Europe-wide laws expected in 2012 but Dr Ladyman promised to try to speed up action from Brussels.

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