HC Deb 25 June 1931 vol 254 cc638-9W
Mr. BATEY

asked the Minister of Transport whether, in any future amendment of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, he will amend Section 77 so as to provide that drivers of motor vehicles under 21 years of age shall be licensed as drivers where they have been drivers for 12 months and have clean sheets, and that the present Section 77 shall only apply to new drivers?

Mr. HERBERT MORRISON

I do not quite follow my hon. Friend's question. Practically all public service vehicles are heavy motor cars, and, under Section 9 of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, a person under 21 years of age cannot be licensed to drive a heavy motor car unless he satisfies the licensing authority that he was, during the six months immediately preceding 1st January, 1930, in the habit of driving a motor vehicle of that class. It is clear that the class of drivers to which my hon. Friend refers must obviously be rapidly decreasing in numbers, and even though amending legislation on this point were considered to be desirable, by the time it had been introduced and become law the case would hardly arise.

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