Draft Community Drivers’ Hours Offences (Enforcement) regulations 2017

Karl Turner Excerpts

Monday 27th November 2017 General Committees

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

It is always an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. The Opposition are very supportive of this entirely sensible measure, which makes sense because it will give enforcement officers the same powers for historical and current offences. It will also take pressure off the courts, as it will be possible to deal with historical offences on the spot.

Speaking as a criminal practitioner, the difference is that the measure will give the authorities the right to issue a fixed penalty for an offence committed up to 28 days beforehand. I suppose that is a kind of retrospective prosecution. It may, therefore, give rise to far more checks being made, at least in the initial stages, so over-enthusiastic officers might see it as a way to be over-zealous, if I can put it like that. One way to avoid that might be to make the provision kick in from a blank sheet—perhaps a 28-day period before the legislation came into effect. Has the Minister has considered that?