Justice and Home Affairs Committee, 07 Dec 1999
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 7, 1999
Official Report
112KB pdf
Petition (Emergency Vehicles)
Petition 28 is from the 999 Clear Roads Campaign, on emergency vehicles. It has been referred to us by the Public Petitions Committee and has also been referred to the Transport and the Environment Committee. As members will have seen from the clerk's note, the petition reads:
"We, the undersigned, declare that lives are being endangered by the failure of road traffic users to give priority to the emergency services.
The petitioners therefore request that the Scottish Parliament support a law which will force drivers to give way and access to the Emergency Services in pursuit of their duties, during 999 emergency operations."
The petition is signed by James Buchanan of Arbroath and 36 others, mostly from Arbroath and Glasgow. It invites Parliament to legislate to require drivers to give way to emergency vehicles.
If members have read the note from the clerk, they will see that there are a number of difficulties with this petition, as road traffic legislation is a matter reserved to Westminster. That is one fairly insurmountable obstacle to legislating on an issue. Because the petition explicitly seeks legislation, as opposed to the committee's or Parliament's taking a view or having a debate on the subject, it is difficult to see how we can reasonably further it. The clerk has helpfully pointed out that it is already a requirement of the highway code that drivers should give way to emergency vehicles.
This is a difficult set of circumstances. We can advise the petitioners that, because we cannot legislate in this Parliament on a reserved matter, it is impossible for us to provide the answer that they are looking for. I suppose that they could be advised to try the processes of the Westminster Parliament rather than this one. However, we would want at least to indicate our concern about the matters that have been raised. I would want to take up the clerk's suggestion that we write to the Executive drawing attention to those matters. I would also want to write to the convener of the Transport and the Environment Committee saying that, notwithstanding the impossibility of legislating in this area, the Transport and the Environment Committee may want to discuss the problem in more general terms, to raise public awareness of it. That is not our place, as our role and remit as the Justice and Home Affairs Committee is more specific. If members are happy with that suggestion, we will go ahead with it.
The petition asks us to support a law, rather than to legislate ourselves. You are right to say that this is a reserved power, but could we get in touch with the Minister for Transport and the Environment and ask whether she is having discussions with her counterpart south of the border on progressing legislation at Westminster? We could, as you suggest, write to the convener of the Transport and the Environment Committee. However, we should also ask the minister whether she intends to open up discussion and dialogue with her colleagues in London.
At the end of his note, the clerk points out that we can ask whether the Executive has any plans to increase public awareness of the need to give way. That is something that the Executive can do.
That is the point that I was going to make. This is not about a new law, but about ensuring that the existing highway regulations are adhered to. The correct body to discuss this matter and to do any publicity is the Transport and the Environment Committee. This is clearly a transport issue, rather than a legal issue.
We should write to the convener of the Transport and the Environment Committee, to the Scottish Executive and to the petitioners in the terms that have been outlined. Is everybody happy with that?
Members indicated agreement.