Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what impact assessment his Department carried out on legislative changes to the operating weight of MCBP vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
There have been no legislative changes to the weight limits applicable to Mobile Concrete Batching Plant (MCBP) vehicles. The applicable legal requirements remain the same as those that apply to all heavy goods vehicles, including barrel concrete mixers. The Department does not in general conduct impact assessments on the application of existing legal requirements.
In April 2018 the Department put in place a temporary administrative arrangement to enable much of the current fleet of vehicles to be legally operated for up to the next 10 years above the standard weight limits. This is intended to provide relevant operators with time to come into compliance with those currently-applicable limits.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what economic impact assessment his Department has carried out on changes to the regulation of MCBP vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In September 2017 regulations were made that removed exemptions from statutory vehicle testing for a number of specialised heavy vehicles, including Mobile Concrete Batching Plant (MCBP). An impact assessment was published alongside these regulations. In January 2018 regulations were made that modified exemptions from operator licensing for certain vehicle types, including MCBP. No formal impact assessment was produced as the costs implied were estimated to be below the threshold considered proportionate. There have been no legislative changes to the weight limits applicable to MCBP vehicles.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including as part of the driving test process more information and guidance to young drivers on the dangers of driving powerful vehicles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Throughout the process for learning to drive, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) makes available, in its range of learning materials, information and guidance to all learner drivers about driving any vehicle safely. Learning materials include the Highway Code and the National Standard for Driver and Rider Training.
While there has been no specific assessment of including in the DVSA’s learning materials information about the dangers of driving powerful vehicles, the Department plans to trial the effectiveness of a range of measures to improve the safety of young and novice drivers, both before they take their test and after passing it.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on the safety of young people of driving vehicles with high brake horse power.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Young drivers are generally more likely to be killed or seriously injured than car drivers aged 25 or over.
There are no current plans to limit the engine capacity that young drivers are able to drive, as this would not address the many fatal and serious accidents which occur at lower speeds.
The Department will, however, monitor the results of the introduction of Graduated Driver Licencing (GDL) in Northern Ireland. GDL is a staged approach to fully independent driving, which can include a number of different components related to pre- and post-test restrictions. This includes the imposition of restrictions, such as not carrying peer aged passengers or night time driving.
In addition, as highlighted in the Road Safety Statement, the Department is about to trial the effectiveness of a range of measures to improve the safety of young and novice drivers, both before they take their test and after passing it.
Many new drivers are young drivers, and we have recently updated the driving test both to ensure new drivers have the skills they will need through a lifetime of safe driving, and to reflect better the situations they may encounter when they first start driving unaccompanied. For example, the independent driving time is set to increase, and during this time candidates will be asked to follow directions from a sat nav.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many young drivers have been involved in road traffic accidents in each of the last two years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department only holds data on police reported road collisions involving personal injury in Great Britain. The number of young drivers and car drivers aged between 17 and 24 involved in road accidents are shown in the table below for years 2015 and 2016.
Number of young1 drivers/riders2 and car drivers involved3 in personal injury accidents in Great Britain, 2015 and 2016 | ||
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Year | Drivers/riders aged 17 to 24 involved in road accidents | Car drivers aged 17 to 24 involved in road accidents |
2015 | 40,097 | 28,928 |
2016 | 38,400 | 27,717 |
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| Source: DfT STATS19 |
1 Young drivers/riders are defined as aged between 17 and 24 | ||
2 Drivers/riders of all vehicles, including motorcycle, pedal cycle and horse riders | ||
3 Note that this does not mean that the driver/rider or passenger of their vehicle is necessarily injured. | ||
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many young drivers have been involved in road traffic accidents in each of the last two years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department only holds data on police reported road collisions involving personal injury in Great Britain. The number of young drivers and car drivers aged between 17 and 24 involved in road accidents are shown in the table below for years 2015 and 2016.
Number of young1 drivers/riders2 and car drivers involved3 in personal injury accidents in Great Britain, 2015 and 2016 | ||
|
|
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|
Year | Drivers/riders aged 17 to 24 involved in road accidents | Car drivers aged 17 to 24 involved in road accidents |
2015 | 40,097 | 28,928 |
2016 | 38,400 | 27,717 |
|
| Source: DfT STATS19 |
1 Young drivers/riders are defined as aged between 17 and 24 | ||
2 Drivers/riders of all vehicles, including motorcycle, pedal cycle and horse riders | ||
3 Note that this does not mean that the driver/rider or passenger of their vehicle is necessarily injured. | ||
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's letter entitled Regulation of mobile concrete batching plant – decision on operating weight arrangements, published on 5 April 2018, for what reason his Department did not undertake an assessment of the economic effect on the viability of businesses of his decision against a permanent specific arrangement for mobile batching concrete plants prior to that announcement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department does not in general conduct impact assessments on the application of existing legal requirements. However, we have listened to industry’s concerns, and that is why we have confirmed a 10 year derogation to allow mobile concrete batching plants to continue to operate above the standard legal weight limits to give the industry sufficient time to adjust.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his announcement of 10 March 2017 that the only preconditions were (a) to ensure that the weights envisaged for both the STGO regime and VSOs were within the accepted tolerances of the standard national loading model for road structures and (b) technical legal drafting, for what reasons his announcement of 5 April 2018, decided against an amendment to the special types rules to enable Mobile Concrete Batching Plants (MCBPs) to continue to operate outside standard legal gross vehicle weight limits, but within standard axle weights, in order to maintain similar payloads to current operations.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In discussions between Departmental officials and some mobile batching industry representatives in 2017, no commitments were made about what arrangements would be put in place following a final decision. An official letter to the Batched on Site Association dated 10 March 2017 is stated to be “without prejudice to a Ministerial decision”. It summarises a technical proposal, which Ministers asked officials to develop with that industry group, for future Ministerial consideration.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his announcement of 10 March 2017 that a permanent specific weight regime for Mobile Concrete Batching Plants (MCBPs) was a specific solution proposed for the very specific circumstances related to MCBPs, for what reasons his Department now concludes that it would be highly likely to receive demands for similar treatment from operators of other types of vehicles that would benefit from operating at a higher gross weight, including tippers and barrel mixers.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In December 2017 the Department sought wider stakeholder views on the concept of a specific permanent weight arrangement for mobile concrete batching plant. Following that exercise, it decided not to take forward this option. It is partly because of the feedback received on the concept that the Department concluded that other such demands would be likely.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will confirm that his policy on applicable weight limits for Mobile Concrete Batching Plants (MCBPs) has resulted in a significant change that will apply to all (a) old and (b) new registrations for MCBPs not eligible to operate under a Vehicle Special Order after 1 September 2018.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department has put in place a 10-year temporary arrangement enabling some mobile concrete batching plant to operate in excess of standard weight limits to provide time for the operators of these vehicles to come into compliance with the currently-applicable legal limits.
Vehicles that are not eligible for operation under these arrangements, such as vehicles over 12 years old and those first registered after 2018, remain entitled to operate at the same standard weight limits that have previously applied.