HC Deb 26 October 1982 vol 29 cc963-4

PROCEEDINGS IN RESPECT OF OFFENCES IN CONNECTION WITH CROWN VEHICLES

Lords amendment: No. 83, after clause 55, insert—

" .—(1) In section 188 of the 1972 Act (application to the Crown), for subsections (8) and (9) there shall be substituted the following subsections

"(8) Where an offence under this Act is alleged to have been committed in connection with a vehicle in the public service of the Crown, proceedings may be brought in respect of the offence against a person nominated for the purpose on behalf of the Crown; and subject to subsection (9) below, where any such offence is committed any person so nominated shall also be guilty of the offence as well as any person actually responsible for the offence (but without prejudice to proceedings against any person so responsible).

(9) Where a person is convicted of an offence by virtue of subsection (8) above—

  1. (a)no order may be made on his conviction save an order imposing a fine;
  2. (b)payment of any fine imposed on him in respect of that offence may not be enforced against him; and
  3. (c)apart from the imposition of any such fine, the conviction shall be disregarded for all purposes other than any appeal (whether by way of case stated or otherwise)."

(2) The subsections substituted by subsection (1) above for subsections (8) and (9) of section 188 of the 1972 Act (referred to below in this section as the 1972 Act subsections) shall also be substituted—

  1. (a)>for section 97(4) of the 1967 Act; and
  2. (b)for section 102(3) of the Transport Act 1968;
renumbered in the former case as subsections (4) and (5) and in the latter case as subsections (3) and (3A) (and taking the reference in each of those subsections to the other as correspondingly renumbered).

(3) As inserted by subsection (2) above in section 102 of the Transport Act 1968, subsection (8) of the 1972 Act subsections shall have effect with the substitution of the words "this Part of this Act" for the words "this Act"."

Mrs. Chalker

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

The amendment seeks to put right an unsatisfactory situation whereby, through no fault of his own, an officer nominated as a departmental representative in court proceedings in respect of a Crown vehicle in the service of that Department may be personally prejudiced.

The Government therefore propose to retain the concept of the nominated officer but to modify it so that it operates in a more equitable way. Accordingly, the amendment was introduced in another place to provide that court proceedings may still be brought where a Department is involved in an offence, but that the nominated "defendant" should not be personally prejudiced as a result of conviction. Bearing in mind the considerations I have already explained, this would appear to be the best solution to a somewhat awkward problem, and certainly one that was suggested to me in earlier debates on the Bill.

Lords amendment agreed to.

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