 |
Rennie presses Minister to plug driving instructors loophole
November 29, 2006 10:24 AM
Stephen Ladyman, the Transport Minister today agreed that there was an urgent need for something to be done to prevent convicted sex offenders from continuing to work as a driving instructor. Willie Rennie, who secured the Westminster Hall debate grilled the Minister on the need for changes after one of his constituents was sexually abused by her driving instructor who was subsequently allowed to continue giving lessons.
Lesley Anne Steele was assaulted by her instructor, James McNair Bennett and has been working tirelessly with Willie since then, pressing the Department of Transport to agree to a change in the rules. Currently, there is no mechanism for the Driving Standards Agency to suspend driving instructors from the approved list as soon as they are convicted, and they are able to continue working for up to 4 months after their conviction.
During the debate, the Minister said:
"I share Mr Rennie's respect for Lesley Anne, it took a great deal of bravery for her to pursue this issue in the manner that she has. We didn't do enough to her Lesley Anne after her ordeal, but I have approached the Driving Standards Agency who has assured me that moves will be made to fix this.
Mr Ladyman continued:
"There are deficiencies in the law as it stands, even if someone has pleaded guilty to a charge, we are still unable to prevent them from working immediately. We missed an opportunity to include legislation on this in the Road Safety Bill, and I regret this. However I am keen to find another legislative solution to this problem and I will be talking to my colleagues in the Home Office to this end."
After the debate, Willie Rennie the MP for Dunfermline and West Fife said:
"I was happy to have secured the debate and to have the chance to question the Minister directly. I think that everything should be done to try and get something on the Statute Book, and the Criminal Justice Bill seems to me to be an ideal opportunity to do so.
"Lesley Anne has worked extremely hard to get a commitment from the Department for Transport to plug the legal gap that currently exists, and I hope that some progress has been made today towards doing this."
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats