I had not intended to speak in the debate but, having listened to Clare Adamson’s opening speech, I was struck by how much work she has done in the area over many years, and I thought that the least I could do was stick around and make a contribution.

I thank Clare Adamson not only for her motion on child safety week 2024, but for her work in a variety of areas—not just child safety, but accident prevention more generally, electrical safety, water safety; the list goes on. We all owe her a debt of gratitude for her sterling work in those areas. If ever we want a colleague in our Parliament to risk assess our home or workplace, Clare Adamson might be the very person to do it. However, Clare’s campaign is about asking us all to risk assess what we do as individuals with our children and families on a day-to-day basis, and to make the most reasonable adjustments.

In this brief contribution, I will touch on an area of child safety that I will also talk about in my members’ business debate in a few weeks’ time: the use and misuse of off-road vehicles. That debate will not focus on children and young people in particular, but, as I listened to Clare Adamson speak, I realised that there is a clear link.

I should point out that most people who use off-road vehicles do so responsibly, but they do not always do so legally. They are, unwittingly, unsafe as they do that. That can be the case even when it is just kids on scooters or bicycles—there is an increasing proliferation of battery-powered propelled scooters, which are illegal on the roads, and Deliveroo powered bikes. Those can do up to 30 to 40 miles an hour. Kids can also get hold of some of those things, and be at risk. For the kids, it is just fun and adventure, but it is also deeply dangerous.

My debate in a few weeks’ time will look at the wider issues around that, including the potential for the UK to register such off-road vehicles, and the effective policing and licensing of misdemeanours in relation to them.

Today, however, I was thinking about education and positive messages and about children and families being aware of the dangers, whether involving a scooter, a bicycle, a dirt bike or an off-road vehicle. You see wee kiddies on quad bikes in the streets—which I have a bit of concern about more generally—without even a helmet on. As I was listening to Clare Adamson give her fantastic opening speech, I thought that we should be making common cause on these things across the Parliament, and between Parliaments, given some of the reserved aspects.

I thank Clare Adamson for all her work in this area, and I am also trying to twist her arm to speak in my debate in a few weeks’ time. I am happy to support her motion this evening.