HL Deb 02 March 1954 vol 186 cc1-3

2.37 p.m.

LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH

My Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prosecutions have been instituted under the regulations concerning the emission of exhaust gases from diesel engines fitted to road vehicles during the last twelve months or any more convenient measuring period.]

THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (LORD LLOYD)

My Lords, I regret that the figures are not kept in such a form as to enable me to give the noble Lord the information he requires.

LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH

My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether he will represent to his right honourable friend the Home Secretary, that, in view of the importance of this matter, figures should be kept in such a manner that the efficacy of the law as a deterrent to wrong-doing can be checked?

EARL HOWE

My Lords, before the noble Lord answers the question, may I. ask him whether he is aware that this is not the only matter in which the law is broken consistently, day in and day out, throughout the year? I do not know whether that is what the noble Lord, Lord Lucas of Chilworth, would like—that all laws relating to diesel engines and. that sort of thing should be enforced with equal strictness.

LORD WEBB-JOHNSON

My Lords, before the noble Lord replies, may I intervene to ask whether Her Majesty's Government will give serious attention to this matter, because, in the opinion of many, too much emphasis may have been laid on what some noble Lords may regard as the pleasurable occupation of supporting the Treasury by sending up their in come in smoke, and not enough emphasis on one other fact which has emerged from the statistical inquiry, which was the great disparity between the incidence of cancer of the lung in thickly populated urbanised areas compared with rural areas? Moreover, I would ask—

SEVERAL NOBLE LORDS: Order, Order!

LORD WEBB-JOHNSON

This is a question. I would ask the noble Lord, Lord Lloyd, whether he will give serious consideration to the fact that four times as many people die of bronchitis in thickly urbanised areas as in the rural areas.

LORD LLOYD

My Lords, the noble Lord who has just sat down seemed to me to cover a rather wider field than that raised in the Question. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas of Chilworth, asked me whether I would draw my right honourable friend's attention to the desirability of keeping the statistics in such a way as to show the number of offences under this head. I gladly tell him that I will draw my right honourable friend's attention to that point. If it will help the noble Lord, I can give him the figures for this particular offence in the Metropolitan Police District (national statistics do not exist) and they are as follows: 1950, summonses, 16; cautions, 18; 1951, summonses, 9; cautions, 12; 1952, summonses 3; cautions, 19; 1953, summonses, nil; cautions, 18.