Goods Vehicles (Testing, Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Viscount Stansgate Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2026 Grand Committee

To conclude, these regulations will support the uptake of 3.5 to 4.25 tonne zero-emission vans by removing regulatory barriers to their use. The changes to both the roadworthiness testing requirements and the drivers’ hours rules will reduce administrative burdens and ensure that operators choosing to transition to a zero-emission van are not subject to more onerous obligations than those using equivalent internal combustion engine vans. Supporting van operators to make the switch to using a zero-emission van will reduce emissions from the transport sector and support vehicle manufacturers in reaching targets included in the zero-emission vehicle mandate. I hope noble Lords will join me in supporting these measures.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Viscount Stansgate) (Lab)]

I have been advised that we are expecting back-to-back votes on Amendments 369 and 369A to the Crime and Policing Bill, which are currently under discussion in group 1 in the Chamber. The Minister is on his feet, and it is quite possible that we will be interrupted before very long. If we are interrupted for two votes, the Committee will stand adjourned for 20 minutes from the time the Division Bell rings.

[Lord Pack (LD)]

This is a welcome statutory instrument, particularly given the importance of growing the zero-emission sector and its potential role for reducing the health and environmental impacts of our transport systems.

As I have on other occasions, and perhaps will again in the future, criticised other SIs for either not reflecting previous consultation responses or taking too long to appear after a consultation, it is only right to acknowledge that, in this case, the SI definitely does reflect the broad results of that earlier consultation and indeed has appeared at a much speedier pace than many other SIs. Even so, it has been a year since the consultation concluded, so I hope the department will continue to look at ways of speeding up the turnaround of its legislative work.

Reducing the regulatory burden is certainly welcome where it can be done safely and without undermining other policy objectives or causing other problems. With that in mind, I have three questions that I hope the Minister can give reassurance on.

First, as the Minister has touched on already—and as the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, of which I am a member, highlighted in its report on the SI—once the powers in the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 expire in June this year, which is now only a few weeks away, there are no primary powers available to further amend the assimilated EU retained drivers’ hours and tachograph regulations. If it turns out that further legislative change in that area is needed or would be beneficial, that gap in the department’s powers could become a problem.

It was welcome that the Minister mentioned that the department plans to address this at the earliest opportunity. I hope she does not mind me pressing to see whether it is possible to get something a bit more specific than that, as that could cover anything from days to centuries, given the pace at which some items proceed in this place.

Secondly, given the improved safety features we are seeing on zero-emission vehicles, the move towards heavier vehicles—which this SI is part of—should not, I am sure we all hope, turn out to be at the expense of overall road safety. It is likely, for the reasons the Minister gave earlier, that the SI gets this balance right and rightly encourages zero-emission vehicles without endangering road safety. However, as they are generally heavier, it is important to be sure that we are getting this right. Can the Minister provide a bit more detail about the plans the department has to keep this situation under review?

I ask that because when the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations came through the system last year and were scrutinised by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, the department very much focused on how zero-emission vehicles are no more likely to be in an accident than other vehicles. It gave—I think it is fair to say—relatively little consideration to the risk that, even if there are not more accidents involving zero-emission vehicles, their typically greater weight might mean those accidents are more severe in nature.

That focus on the frequency rather than severity of accidents unfortunately continues in the Explanatory Memorandum for this statutory instrument. It is absolutely fair to say, and it is very welcome, that in response to questioning from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, the department engaged more directly with the issue of the severity and not merely the frequency of accidents. I therefore hope that the Minister will take this opportunity to be clear about the department’s commitment to tracking whether increased weight causes any safety issues that need further action to address, and in particular what data will be published, and with what frequency, to make sure that we can be confident that these changes are working.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, there is the Northern Ireland angle and the divergence we will see in tachograph requirements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government’s approach, as I understand it, rests heavily on saying that this will not be a problem, because the number of relevant zero-emission vehicles which currently travel between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is fairly small. There is, though, a potential tension between a policy that is designed overall to increase the number of zero-emission vehicles in use, yet also depends in part on the number of those vehicles in use between Great Britain and Northern Ireland being and remaining small. As the Minister mentioned earlier, there are certainly powers and responsibilities that rest with the Northern Ireland Executive in that area, but if we are changing rules for Great Britain that may have an adverse knock-on effect for Northern Ireland, that is obviously our responsibility as well. I hope the Minister can reassure us that monitoring will be done of the number of relevant zero-emission vehicles travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

I hope that on all three points, the answers will be such as to reassure everyone that the result of this statutory instrument will be a welcome, safe and practical growth in the use of zero-emission vehicles.