Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to help ensure that emission fixes installed in vehicles are effective.

In 2016, the DVSA Market Surveillance Unit (MSU) was established to test vehicle emissions in the real world as well as in labs and investigate suspicious practice, significantly increasing oversight of vehicle emissions. The results of the MSU annual emissions-testing programme are made publicly available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dvsa-vehicle-market-surveillance-unit. Where MSU testing identifies non-compliant emissions, including suspicions of a prohibited defeat device, DVSA works with the manufacturer to implement improvement plans. Where action has been carried out this is explained within the published reports. The plan is monitored through regular updates from the manufacturer.

To restrict the use of illegal emission technologies, the Government was at the forefront of the introduction at a European level of Real Driving Emissions (RDE) requirements for new cars and vans, which came into force in September 2017. This is an emissions test conducted on public roads using portable emissions measurement equipment, which due to its random nature makes it virtually impossible to ‘cheat’. Vehicles are checked to ensure they comply with RDE requirements through in-service testing by type approval authorities, market surveillance authorities and other third-party organisations, including NGOs.

For vehicles type-approved by the Vehicle Certification Agency, the effectiveness of any ‘fixes’ installed is assessed before application.

In 2018 the Government strengthened restrictions against the use of illegal emissions technology by passing legislation making it an offence for manufacturers to place motor vehicles on the market which contain prohibited defeat systems. The Government will also bring forward legislation to enable us to require vehicles to be recalled on environmental grounds, as well as exploring other means of strengthening enforcement.