HC Deb 05 July 1972 vol 840 cc544-5
31. Mrs. Doris Fisher

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment for what administrative purposes the age of a woman is required to be given when she is convicted in the courts for a motoring offence.

Mr. Peyton

Date of birth will be needed to identify drivers when driving licences begin to be issued centrally from next March.

Mrs. Fisher

In view of the sensitivity which males and females feel about divulging their ages, cannot the Minister think of a more sophisicated way to register drivers instead of a jumbling up of the birth dates of all motorists?

Mr. Peyton

If I may say so, the hon. Lady is the last person to need to feel sensitive on this subject. The numbers giving the date of birth were chosen as desirable to help in this case because they have the merit that most people remember them with a degree of accuracy.

Mr. Simeons

Would my right hon. Friend the Minister consider reverting to the old adage that a woman is as old as she looks and that a man is old when he stops looking?

Mrs. Fisher

You must be very old.

Mr. Peyton

I do not think I could possibly, with profit, intervene between the hon. Lady and my hon. Friend.

Mr. Speaker

I thought the hon. Lady was addressing the Chair.