§ 37. Sir B. Jannerasked the Minister of Transport what representations he has received from the Licensing Officers' Association about the wording and the size of the print on the summary of restrictions to be inserted in provisional driving licences for persons between the ages of 17 and 21; what reply he has sent; and what consultations he has had with the Association regarding them.
§ Mr. GalbraithWe do not know of the association to which the hon. Member refers, and we have certainly had no 437 such representations from local authority associations. I understand that licensing officers regret, as to some extent we do, the small size of the print, but appreciate that circumstances make it unavoidable. As I told the hon. Member on 17th July, the conditions follow Regulations. These were circulated in draft to many bodies, including local authority associations.
§ Sir B. JannerHas the Parliamentary Secretary attempted to read these restrictions himself, or is it because he has not been able to read them that he does not realise that they are incomprehensible? Will he get a magnifying glass and read the restrictions, and then decide to alter them so that people can understand what they mean?
§ Mr. GalbraithThe hon. Gentleman raised this question with me a fortnight ago, when I told him that, although I sympathised with and understood the difficulty, I had been able to read the restrictions without a magnifying glass. The point here is that only a few people are affected by these restrictions and the headlines are quite easy to read. The hon. Gentleman, I am sure, will appreciate that it was necessary to have this sort of label as, otherwise, it would have meant reprinting 12½ million new licences, which simply could not have been done in the time.