Dangerous Driving Offences (Sentencing)
Debate between Lord Sharma and Ben Bradshaw(10 years ago)
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Alok Sharma
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. He makes the important point that we must have a punishment that fits the crime. We have a justice system that sometimes has much more regard for the criminal than the victims—not only the victims who are killed, but their families and friends who are left behind to pick up the pieces.
Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the point that he is making is particularly relevant to motoring offences? Until the legal system—the courts and the police—treats people who get behind the wheel of a car as being in charge of a lethal weapon, and until those people realise that they are in charge of a lethal weapon, his constituents and the constituents of all of us who have experienced such terrible losses will never feel that justice has been done.
Alok Sharma
The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. As we all agree, the law has to change in the case of dangerous driving.