Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the penalty is for motorcycles exceeding permissible noise levels on roads.

Regulation 54 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 as amended, requires exhausts and silencers to be maintained in good working order and not altered so as to increase noise. Regulation 97 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 provides that “no motor vehicle shall be used on a road in such a matter as to cause any excessive noise which could have been avoided by the exercise of reasonable care on the part of the driver.”

It an offence under section 42 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to use on a road a motor vehicle which does not comply with these requirements. This is punishable on summary conviction by a fine at level 3 on the standard scale for vehicles with fewer than 8 seats (including motorcycles).