56.
asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, in view of the inadequate tuition which many prospective car drivers get, usually from friends or relatives who are themselves often untrained, what steps he will take to impose stricter standards of tuition before licences are issued to drivers for the first time.
My responsibility is to maintain the standard of the driving test. I shall give all the help and encouragement I can to improve standards of driving, but it is up to the candidate, if he wants to pass the test, to see that he gets adequate tuition. I will not, however, overlook the point which the hon. Member has in mind.
57.
asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation why Mr. L. C. Munden, of Bristol, who lost his left arm in an air crash in the Middle East in 1945, was refused a licence to drive a coach after his Department's examiner, police, insurance officer and solicitor all said that he was fully capable of performing the work, that his disability had been overcome, and that he had been driving a vehicle for several years.
The licensing authority for public service vehicles refused the licence because they were not prepared to entrust the lives of possibly 33 passengers to a driver with only one arm. Appeals against decisions such as this do not lie to me, but a court of summary jurisdiction. The applicant exercised his right of appeal and the magistrates eventually dismissed it "with great reluctance."