§ 35. Mrs. Sally Oppenheimasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek powers to oblige garage owners to display prominently on their forecourts leaflets and/or notices supplied by his Department, announcing and explaining new laws and regulations pertaining to the motorist as they become applicable.
§ Mr. PeytonNo, Sir.
§ Mrs. OppenheimIs my right hon. Friend aware that new driving regulations are not widely enough publicised, with the result that they are often contravened by motorists before they even know of their existence? The one place to which all motorists have to go is their garage. Would that not be the most effective place to publicise new regulations?
§ Mr. PeytonI entirely accept the validity of my hon. Friend's general point. I will certainly look at means of making the information more readily available to the public. But the idea that motorists are likely to be lured from their cars to read pamphlets published by my Department and exhibited on garage forecourts is a little far fetched.
§ Mr. J. H. OsbornWill my right hon. Friend look at the content of the pamphlets published by his Department? When, for instance, will there be a new Highway Code? When will he re-edit the Driver's Manual? Is there yet any comprehensive summary of the regulations which a driver has to comply with?
§ Mr. PeytonThat admirable classic work, the Driver's Manual, was republished only this week or last week.
§ Mr. OsbornI thank my right hon. Friend for letting me know.
§ Mr. PeytonI hope that my hon. Friend will lose no opportunity of studying it.
§ Mr. LiptonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that garage owners are taking no notice of anything his Ministry says on any subject whatever? Will he try to get these garage owners to behave properly, and not to indulge in the peculiar rackets that they are engaged in?
§ Mr. PeytonWhen the hon. Gentleman makes that sort of observation I suspect that it springs from his own unhappy experience that no one has been taking enough notice of what he says.