Road Safety Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Owen Paterson (Shadow Minister, Transport; North Shropshire, Conservative)
Further to that point of order, Mrs. Anderson. The hon. Member for Bolton, South-East (Dr. Iddon) is absolutely right: the Italian Government legislated in exactly the same way that we proposed to do through our two amendments. They specified domestic vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, not 7.5 tonnes as we proposed, and to date there has been no objection from the European Commission. As we understand it, such material has been placed on Italian lorries, and the Commission has not said that that is illegal.
During last Thursday’s sitting, the Minister suggested that
“the amendment and the clause are redundant and perhaps illegal.”—[Official Report, Standing Committee A, 23 March 2006; c. 148.]
Would the Minister clarify the status of amendment No. 77, which would have had the effect of allowing this material by 1 January 2007? Are we in a position to debate that amendment at the end of the proceedings, because it comes right at the end of the Bill, or would it be better to refer to the matter on Report? That would give the Minister and his officials time to make a careful study of what has happened in Italy, to establish how the Italians have done it and to find out why there is a difference in legal opinion between the Italian and British Governments.