§ 31. Mr. Popplewellasked the Minister of Transport the number of prosecutions under Section 17 of the Road and Rail Act, 1933, during the 12 months ended 31st March, 1952 and 31st March, 1953, respectively; and how many of these, each year, were on account of vehicles owned by the British Transport Commission.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydFigures are not available for the 12 months ended 31st March. Prosecutions under Section 17 of the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, during the 12 months ended 30th September, 1951, totalled 82, and during the 12 months ended 30th September, 1952, totalled 67. None of these prosecutions related to vehicles owned by the British Transport Commission.
§ Mr. PopplewellIn view of the statement of the Minister regarding violations of Sections 16 and 19 of the 1933 Act, does he not realise how foolish his denationalisation proposals are? Here he is setting a serious example of increasing the danger on the roads instead of reducing it; does he not realise how foolish that is?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydI hope the hon. Member realises that Section 17 relates to one important—but definitely only one— aspect of this problem and that he also realises that 900,000 vehicles are in private hands and only 55,000 in the hands of the Commission.