Bicycles: Lighting Regulations (Hansard, 17 March 1997)

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, enforcement of the law on pedal cycle lighting is an operational matter for individual chief officers of police. Chief officers recognise the dangers of failing to display lights on pedal cycles after dark. However, the answer lies not just in enforcement but in education and publicity.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for her reply. Has she herself encountered unlit bicycles at night, their riders apparently oblivious to the danger that they are in, because the most careful drivers may not see them in the dark, especially in bad weather? As cycling is being encouraged in order to reduce traffic congestion and pollution, can suitable warnings be included in guidance on road safety—for example, on television?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I do not wish to detract from the serious point that my noble friend makes. I have not personally encountered such a thing. As somebody who comes from Cambridgeshire, my greatest worry about cyclists is uncontrollable undergraduates weaving through traffic and shoppers in Cambridge city, and having to leap madly out of their way.
The other point that my noble friend makes is important. It is a matter primarily for chief officers. However, there is a great deal of publicity and promotion of awareness of the dangers of riding bicycles without lights. Policemen liaise with schools, and county road safety officers focus on and promote road safety. The Department of Transport issues a number of leaflets. I would mention two in particular: Drive Safe, Cycle Safe, and Tips for Safer Cycling. There is also the mainstream Highway Code, in addition to which there is a special highway code for younger people. In both versions there is a very large section devoted to safety when cycling.

§ Lord Stoddart of Swindon
My Lords, is the Minister aware that, while cycling may be encouraged, cyclists are becoming increasingly unpopular, especially when they cycle without due regard to other people on the footpaths, 644 very often knocking people down? That applies particularly to disabled and blind people. Will the Minister tell the House what indemnity there is for people injured by cyclists illegally cycling on pavements? Also, what will the Minister do to encourage the police to stop the practice by prosecuting them?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, the Government are considering adding a fixed penalty for cycling on a pavement. It is a very real issue. I cannot answer the question about indemnity. I will seek to write to the noble Lord. I can do no better than repeat what was said by Mr. Bowis, the transport Minister in another place. He said: Safe cycling is enhanced by responsible cyclists. People who cycle through red lights—or cycle without lights or on the pavement—are not enhancing the good name of cycling and are doing nothing for their own safety or that of other people".—[Official Report, Commons, 13/1/97; col. 4.]

§ The Earl of Lauderdale
My Lords, will my noble friend tell the House whether there is any possibility of encouraging cyclists to use flickering red lights on their rear mudguards?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, in the course of promoting safer cycling a great deal of advice is given to cyclists about making sure that they can be seen, in order to be safe not only for their own sake but for the sake of other people. It is remiss of me; I ought, on behalf of the whole House, to have wished my noble friend a very happy birthday.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, would it be possible for the Minister's department to look into a complete irregularity on the part of the London Borough of Ealing, which has said that people may ride their bicycles on the pavement?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I hope that the council will not encourage people to ride their bicycles on the pavement. It is not merely those of us who can see who are in some danger; people who cannot see also use the pavements. Someone coming at them on a bicycle can be a very dangerous proposition indeed.

§ Lord McNally
My Lords, is the Minister aware that many parents realise that the pleasure of their youth, namely cycling, is no longer available to their children because, for cyclists, the roads are literally lethal? If children are to be allowed out to cycle, we need many, many more cycle lanes and an awareness by drivers that it is they who are in the dangerous vehicle, not the cyclists.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I am delighted to be able to respond to the noble Lord's points. There is now a national cycling strategy. It proposes a doubling of the existing level of cycle use by the year 2002, and a further doubling of cycle use by the year 2012. A national cycling strategy forum has been established to oversee progress and co-ordinate and integrate contributions to this. The forum will be chaired by the Minister for Road Safety, John Bowis, and includes representatives from a variety of public, private and voluntary bodies. A constituent part of the agenda will be safety.

§ Lord Berkeley
My Lords, will the Minister tell the House how many convictions there were last year for 645 cyclists riding without lights at night? Does she agree that if the police are so under-resourced that they cannot afford to put film in video cameras they are unlikely to be able adequately to enforce legislation relating to cycling without lights?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, so far as concerns the second point that the noble Lord raised, CCTV will be enormously helpful to the police in detecting that kind of offence. We have done more than any previous government to improve matters and to supply local authorities and partnership schemes with cameras for closed circuit television in their areas.
With regard to the statistics, there have been 332 prosecutions for lack of cycle lights and reflectors. The offences are also covered by formal warnings, written warnings, oral warnings and fixed penalties. We do not separate out the particular statistic requested by the noble Lord.

§ Lord Clinton-Davis
My Lords, perhaps I may join the Minister in congratulating the noble Earl on his birthday.
Perhaps I may also express some surprise at the Minister's assertion that the Government have plans for new legislation. In three days? They will have their work cut out. The House is indebted to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, for raising this important issue, but is not one of the problems that for the most part cyclists are not insured? Whether they ride their bicycles in the way the noble Lord indicated or in the way my noble friend Lord Stoddart indicated, in the event of an accident it is extremely difficult in most instances to contemplate the possibility of recovering damages in relation to serious injury. Is there not a necessity to contemplate more effective publicity about this aspect of the issue than has been the case in the past?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I cannot answer the question about insurance in the time available. However, what I can say to the noble Lord is that we are entirely confident that we shall be in charge of a legislative programme now and into the future.