Target pavement cyclists, say MPs

This forum is by it's nature full of confident and experienced riders - not everyone is like that.

Exactly.

Personally, I think they that people who feel unsafe on sections of road and who aren't bothering anyone else should be afforded some discretion (obviously not a total waiver - if they feel unsafe riding on a road at all, then they should question using a bike).

I disagree. My mother only learned to cycle at the age of 40. As she doesn't cycle frequently, and doesn't get a lot of practice she is still very nervous about cycling amongst traffic, but is slowly building confidence. Should she stop cycling completely because she is inexperienced and feels uncomfortable in heavy traffic?
As an example of how uncomfortable she finds it: She will put the bike in the back of the car and drive to the canal (paying to go over a toll bridge which is free to cyclists) in order to go for a ride along the towpath, rather than cycle the 5 minutes (if that) to get to where she leaves the car.