HL Deb 13 April 1967 vol 281 cc1401-2

3.12 p.m.

LORD SEGAL

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

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will consider making compulsory the issue by insurance companies of a disc, certifying in detail the terms of a car's insurance, to be affixed on the windscreens of all cars, instead of continuing to issue the present type of car insurance certificate.]

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, there are wide variations in the terms under which motor insurance is effective. Two common examples are policy limitations on the purposes for which a car may be used, and restrictions on the persons who may drive it. It would be impracticable to print all these conditions on a windscreen disc of a convenient size. Even if they were so printed, it would still be necessary to question the driver to be sure that his use of the car was within the terms of his policy, and there would therefore be no particular advantage in the proposal contained in the Question.

LORD SEGAL

My Lords, while thanking my noble friend for that reply, may I ask whether he is aware that this practice has been tried out with success in other countries, and that all I ask for here is not a statement of all the conditions comprised in the insurance cover, but simply a summary of the main facts, similar to those required on the registration disc?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, the only country in which this practice exists, so far as I am aware, is South Africa, and there the circumstances are different. In South Africa one does not have to prove that one is insured to take out a vehicle licence whereas in this country a vehicle licence will not be issued until a valid insurance certificate is presented. We have gone into this matter, and I have done so again this morning, in view of the noble Lord's letter, which I had seen, and I am satisfied that my original reply is right. There is no particular advantage in the scheme.

LORD SEGAL

My Lords, without in any way wishing to press my noble friend to change his mind I would ask: would he not at any rate agree that such a change could involve a great saving of the time of the police and of inconvenience to the motor-using public?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, an insurance certificate is only prima facie evidence that a motorist has a policy with a particular insurance company. Many details appear in small print on both the front and the back of the certificate, and it would not be practicable for all the relevant conditions to appear on a disc of reasonable size. I do not believe that a piece of paper stuck on the windscreen without the full details would be of any help to the authorities.

VISCOUNT BRENTFORD

My Lords, would the noble Lord also bear in mind the undesirability of accepting this suggestion from the point of view of cluttering up windscreens and making the difficulty of seeing out still greater?

LORD SHEPHERD

Yes, my Lords, but may I say that I hope the noble Lord's Association will bear that point in mind when they issue their own little tickets to replace the metal tickets, which are also being stuck on windscreens.

LORD SEGAL

My Lords, would not my noble friend agree that the size of such a disc would be much smaller than that of which many Members of this House avail themselves, when they affix the official car badges of the House to the windscreens of their cars?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, I think that on that point my noble friend is quite correct.