Clause 11 - Financial penalty deposits
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
1:00 pm
Owen Paterson (Shadow Minister, Transport; North Shropshire, Conservative)
I shall be brief, because my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) has given us a good introduction to the amendments. I want to chip in to support them.
The Minister kindly gave me a written reply in January that showed a spectacular increase in the number of foreign registered vehicles coming to this country. The number has gone from 671,000 in 1997 up to 1,595,000 in 2004. That highlights some of the problems that my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Norfolk (Mr. Bellingham) mentioned.
We wholeheartedly welcome what the Government are trying to do in the clause, although I believe that our amendments would beef it up. It is worth pointing out that the Freight Transport Association also welcomes the moves to fine foreign lorry drivers. It has sent me a memo saying that
“it is not possible to give foreign drivers an endorseable fixed penalty notice and when they are summonsed or issued with a non-endorseable fixed penalty notice, there is no mechanism to ensure that they do not evade punishment by leaving the country.”
The matter has been brought to my attention several times by hauliers in this country, who feel that there is inequity. They feel particularly strongly about regulation, and I wonder whether the Minister could deal with that point. There is a feeling that our haulage industry is better regulated, and that our vehicles are better maintained and more money is spent on them. It may be anecdotal, but there is a gut feeling among our hauliers that the foreign trucks coming into the country are less well maintained. I hope that what we are trying to do today will give the authorities the ability to stop trucks that may not be as well maintained as our domestic fleet.
Generally we support the clause, although I also support our amendments.