Littering from Vehicles Bill [HL]

Lord Brabazon of Tara Excerpts

Friday 19th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Brabazon of Tara]

My Lords, like other noble Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Marlesford on introducing the Bill, and indeed I fully support his motives. A lot of discussion has taken place as to what the Minister’s reaction to the Bill might be but I think that I can give my noble friend Lord Marlesford a little bit of encouragement. As he said, these measures have already been introduced in London local authorities by means of a private Bill. My experience of private Bills is that often some of the measures in them have come into national law within a year or two. Therefore, there is sometimes hope.

Not very long ago, I saw a child throwing litter out of a car and this was done in full view of its parents, with the connivance of its parents and probably with the encouragement of its parents. That left me profoundly depressed, and it touches on the points that the noble Lord, Lord Judd, made at the beginning of his remarks. No responsibility was being taught and it left me thoroughly depressed about what the future might hold.

In my few remarks, I want to stick very closely to the content of the Bill because most of what can be said about rubbish has been said today. Most noble Lords have spoken about local areas, whether urban or rural, but this is also a problem on national roads—motorways and trunk roads—which are the responsibility of the Highways Agency. I therefore hope that when we come, in Clause 3, to the definition of civil enforcement officers and, in Clause 6, to the definition of a responsible authority, the Highways Agency, which patrols these roads—we have all seen it doing so—will be included in that category.

That is really all that I have to say about the Bill. I very much congratulate my noble friend and I hope that the Bill gets a fair wind.