Clause 42 - Vehicles modified to run on fuel stored under pressure
Road Safety Bill
6:30 pm
Mr David Jamieson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Plymouth, Devonport, Labour)
I knew the answer to that, because I asked that question. I have forgotten what answer I was given. My amnesia has left me and the answer has come back in a flash of inspiration. It is a long-standing tradition that finance issues appear in italics. We live and learn.
We are trying to stop vehicles coming on to the road that might present a danger. Although LPG is under pressure, it does not constitute a greater danger. I am not sure that today we would authorise light steel tanks that can easily be ruptured in a crash and contain a highly volatile material—petrol. The LPG tank, and certainly the CNG tank, is much stronger than a petrol tank and much less likely to rupture in a crash. It is a matter of ensuring that dangerous vehicles do not go on the road.
We have no specific control over foreign vehicles coming in, but the French and Dutch inspection systems have been much more rigorous than ours for some time. LPG vehicles are allowed on ferries but I believe that Eurotunnel does not allow them to use the tunnel, although some are asking whether that regulation can be lifted.