Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Lord Falconer of Thoroton Excerpts

Lords Hansard - part one & Committee stage
Monday 8th November 2021 Lords Chamber

I considered whether Amendment 155 in the names of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, and my noble friend Lady Randerson would address the problem with Clause 66 by redefining “careless driving” for the purposes of this offence, by referring to the foreseeability of serious injury. We are back to Caldwell: does foreseeability play any part in it? I do not think so. Not only would that introduce an intermediate standard of driving—a kind of “careless driving plus”—which would be unnecessary, but it would be unjust. When a driver emerges from a private drive or a side road into the path of an oncoming vehicle entirely by mistake and is involved in an accident, whether or not there is serious injury is just chance. It is obvious to anyone that pulling out into the road in the path of another car is likely to cause serious injury, so a conviction of a Clause 66 offence, even as amended, would follow. Should such an offence be imprisonable? In my view, no. The only way to achieve a just result is to remove Clause 66 entirely from the Bill.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

The noble Lord has made a very interesting speech, but is it right that negligence and the harm that it does cannot be reflected in imprisonment for any criminal offence? What is the position in relation to health and safety at work? My understanding of the law is that once someone is convicted of what is in effect negligence in relation to providing conditions at work, the court can take such matters into account—for example, if they were negligent and someone lost an eye, that would increase the penalty, and imprisonment would be a possibility. I might be wrong about that.

[Lord Thomas of Gresford (LD)]

That is an interesting point. Manslaughter can obviously be by negligence.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

Gross negligence.

[Lord Thomas of Gresford (LD)]

Gross negligence, yes—although it is interesting that the word “gross” is put before it. But these are different offences, and it may be that I should confine my criticism to the road traffic situation and not extend it as a general principle of English law.