§ 1. Sir Clive Bossomasked the Minister of Transport whether she has come to a decision about making safety belts compulsory equipment on the front seats of all new motor cars.
§ 18. Dr. David Kerrasked the Minister of Transport what steps she is taking to encourage the installation and use of seat belts in private motor cars.
§ The Minister of Transport (Mrs. Barbara Castle)I intend soon to circulate to interested organisations proposals for regulations which would make the fitting of seat belts compulsory on the front seats of new motor cars and light vans. In the meantime I am about to make regulations which will require these vehicles to be fitted with anchorage points for seat belts.
I am continually using all forms of publicity, including Press and television, to encourage the fitting and use of seat belts.
§ Sir Clive BossomWill the right hon. Lady consider further important publicity about the vital need of having seat belts and also wearing them? I understand that only 15 per cent. of cars are so fitted and that only half the drivers of these cars wear them regularly.
§ Mrs. CastleI take every opportunity, in my own speeches, through Press publicity generally and particularly through the television, to publicise this. We have public service films which are shown as fillers on television. The present film has been shown about 450 times in the past two years. We are doing our best.