The Government has launched a "Learning to drive" consultation on how to improve driver training and testing. Stafford’s Labour MP David Kidney says the consultation will be of particular interest to young drivers but that everyone has an interest in improving road safety:

“This consultation looks at good ideas like a new foundation course offered in schools and colleges leading to a qualification on safe road use and equipping learner drivers with the wider skills needed to be a safe driver, from driving in difficult conditions (for example at night or in poor weather) to learning to predict and respond to other road users' intentions.

“It suggests we update the training syllabus to ensure learners understand what is required of them to become responsible drivers. An improved driving test would then require learner drivers to demonstrate their driving skills and clear understanding of different situations on the road.

“I especially like the proposal for new opportunities to take extra training post test. The insurance industry and employers in the driving for work sector will be asked to help develop new courses and qualifications to be taken after the driving test that could lead to lower premiums and a better chance of securing a career in the driving for work sector.

“I would encourage everyone to take part in this consultation. We will be designing training and testing for a generation or more of future drivers. We all want safer roads and fewer road casualties, and this is the obvious starting point.”

This consultation will run for 16 weeks, closing on 8 September.

Key facts about learning to drive in Britain:

• Two million people take a car driving test every year.
• The pass rate is 44%, meaning the average learner takes more than two tests before passing.
• 750,000 people qualify for a licence every year - three quarters of these are under the age of 25.
• Current average cost of a lesson is approximately £21 - up to £28 in London.
• The average learner has 52 hours of lessons and spends £1,500 learning to drive.
• Current fees for the driving test (for a car) are £30 for the theory test (which includes the hazard perception test); £56.50 for the practical test (£67 if you want an evening or weekend).
• A newly qualified male driver faces an insurance premium from £1,200; and a female driver of same age faces a premium from £800.
• The current car driving test is in two parts:
- The theory test - a multiple-choice answer knowledge assessment (since 1996); and a computer screen-based hazard perception test (since 2002).
- The practical test - of general driving on the road and standard manoeuvres (the three-point turn, reversing round a corner, and emergency stop): this part of the test also includes an eye sight test, and a 'show me-tell me' test of knowledge of the car (since 2003)
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Stafford’s Labour MP David Kidney has been contacted by a number of constituents who are discovering that they are worse off financially because of the abolition of the 10p income tax rate. He wants to update constituents on moves to address this:

“In 2007 I voted for the Budget and Finance Act, which together gave effect to the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax. It's being forgotten now, but the 10p rate was introduced by the same Gordon Brown that people are now criticising for abolishing it. In a long political career, Gordon has always demonstrated a complete commitment to lifting people out of poverty and raising the incomes of the lowest paid.

“Those tax changes last year included the cut in the basic rate of income tax from 22p to 20p and a large proportion of those 20 million earners who pay the basic rate will gain from that change.

“I and other MPs saw that there were many people who only paid the 10p rate and who would therefore be worse off as a result of the changes unless a combination of other changes compensates them. So we have been asking the Treasury over the past 12 months about personal allowances, national insurance contributions, tax credits and the rates of the national minimum wage and the winter fuel allowance. It's wrong to say that we are only focusing on these matters now that the media has latched onto them - but it is true to say that only now do we see that the Treasury has not done enough on these compensating measures to protect a large number of low-income individuals and households.

“I was in the Chamber for some of yesterday's debate and I was at the Labour Party meeting when Gordon Brown spoke. What we have now, belatedly, is an acceptance that not enough has been done on these compensating measures. The Treasury Ministers promise to collect the evidence and take steps to improve the compensatory measures. The question has moved on from "whether" to "When?" I am doing all I can to present the evidence of the harm caused to vulnerable people and households, and the need for speedy, effective action to put things right”.

ENDS

Stafford’s Labour MP David Kidney has praised Saturday’s Freedom Parade as “magnificent”. Stafford Borough Council granted the Freedom of the Borough to 22 Signal Regiment of the British Army and the Tactical Supply Wing of the RAF.

David Kidney says the whole Borough can be proud of the event:

“The Borough Council is to be congratulated for taking this initiative and carrying it off so well. From the church service to the parade and the ceremony in Market Square, the whole event was faultless.

“I was pleased that the focus of the evening TV news reporting of our special day was on the public support for our military. People lined the town’s streets in their hundreds to cheer and applaud the Army and the RAF. All of us present enjoyed the military marching and the bands playing.

“I am proud that Stafford has such close connections with our Armed Forces and that there is such warm public support for our military. This successful Freedom Parade inspires me to work even more closely with 22 Signal Regiment, Tactical Supply Wing, all other military in the constituency, the families of our Armed Forces and the veterans.

“In church, we all were reminded of the military covenant and the obligation on all of us in civilian life to value and support our Armed Forces because of the very dangerous work that they do in our names. I know that the Government plans to publish a Command Paper shortly to bring together all the ways that we can keep our side of this covenant. I shall write to the Armed Forces Minister to express the obvious support that Stafford demonstrated for our military on Saturday”.

ENDS