Earlier this year the Italian courts decided that laws removing points from licences for driving offences was unconstitutional and that the law needed amending. On 16 November the centre-right government presented these amendments, which included several innovations, and they were passed through the lower house of parliament.

The new laws included the introduction of provisional driving licences for learner drivers at 17 instead of 18 years old. The young drivers would only be allowed to drive within towns and cities and only if accompanied by the holder of a driving licence who was at least 40 years old and who had held a normal licence for 10 years.

Only the state police or Carabiniere, not the city police, would be allowed to set speed traps on roads on the outskirts of towns and cities. It would only be possible to remove licence points for speeding offences if the driver was exceeding 70 km per hour. This amendment was introduced because the government felt that some councils use speed traps as a way of boosting city coffers.

Police could only confiscate a motorbike if the owner was using the vehicle for a criminal act such as a bag snatching. And from 2007 only people over 16 would be able to drive low-powered minicars.

All seemed to be going go plan when the new laws were presented to the senate on 17 November but a quorum was not reached and after four attempts the new law was shelved.