If the hon. Gentleman will wait for a minute or two, I hope to deal with that point. It is an important point.

There is another way of dealing with overloading which is, perhaps, not far round the corner. The hon. Member asked what we were doing. One thing is the new plating scheme which my right hon. Friend's Department will develop shortly and which has already been the subject of discussion with represen- tatives of the industry. Not only will this make much closer control of overloading possible, but it will determine power-to-weight ratios for goods vehicles. It will also help to reduce one of the most irritating and dangerous features of motoring, namely, the lorry which goes uphill much too slowly for the rest of the traffic. I will not say more than that about overloading.

A matter in which the hon. Member was particularly interested was driving for an excessive number of hours. As he said, there have been several recent articles in the Press on this subject. Public anxiety was highlighted by the multiple crashes on motorways in January. It was suggested in some quarters that the cause of those crashes was tiredness due to the drivers being too long at the wheel. As, however, my right hon. Friend pointed out, police investigation failed to find evidence that those lorry drivers had been driving for excessive hours. Undoubtedly, however, some drivers drive longer than they should.

But to supervise every one of the 600 million journeys undertaken annually by goods vehicles is clearly out of the question for any inspectorate, whatever its size. Licensing authorities carry out this side of their duties of checking hours with the aid of non-technical traffic examiners, of whom there are about 140. Their number has been increased to keep in step with the growth of the number of commercial vehicles. They are not a specially recruited grade but are men with an aptitude for the work selected from other grades. At the levels at which they are paid, we have not found any lack of men willing and suitable to do the work.

The hon. Member suggested that we should, perhaps, have more examiners. He will be glad to know that we are taking a fresh look at the whole problem and, clearly, would not wish to rule out the need for more traffic examiners. As I have said, however, the size of an inspectorate to cover every vehicle would be legion. The real problem, therefore, is to know how many we should regard as being enough. One idea which is sometimes mentioned for dealing with this problem of hours, and by which) am not very attracted, is the suggestion that special Government forms should be used. This shows a misunderstanding of the checking procedure. The main method of enforcement is to watch vehicles on the road and then to check against a driver's records. If the two do not tally, an offence has clearly been committed and can be seen to have been committed.

The hon. Member asked about traffic examiners and whether they should have acess to wages records as distinct from the statutory records of hours. The examiners do not have this access and it is a point which we are bearing in mind in our current studies of enforcement. It is not, however, clear that an extra power would in the end be very helpful, as there are various ways of disguising the reasons for extra payment to drivers. It is, however, a matter which we are considering.

I turn now to the problem of vehicle maintenance. The licensing authorities have a staff of highly-qualified vehicle examiners to carry out inspections. They are specially recruited through the Civil Service Commissioners and they are trained automobile engineers of high standard. As the hon. Member said, these examiners have found a high proportion of the goods vehicles which they have inspected to be defective, and the licensing authorities have referred to this fact in their annual reports.

Perhaps at this point I might take up the hon. Member's suggestion that those reports should be more highly standardised. The main statistical returns are, of course, in standard form. I am not clear what more could be done, but I will look at the matter again in the light of what the hon. Member has said. I must, however, point out, as, I am sure, the hon. Member will be aware, that these authorities are independent statutory bodies and it would clearly be wrong for my right hon. Friend to attempt to bind licensing authorities in detail as to what they may or may not say in their reports. I do not think that my right hon. Friend could prevent them from making the sort of remarks of which the hon. Member complained. These reports show that results vary in different parts of the country; but, on average, about one-third of the vehicles checked are found to have some defect, and 8 to 9 per cent. to have defects which render them potentially dangerous. It must be remembered that checks of this kind are usually arranged to catch the likely offender, so these figures may not represent the state of the vehicle population as a whole. Nevertheless, they give no cause for satisfaction, and we have already taken action to try to put matters right.

As I said, the vehicle examiner force has been increased, and, as my right hon. Friend announced yesterday, an intensive campaign of roadside spot checks is to be mounted during the summer months.

The hon. Gentleman asked me to say a few words about this campaign. These spot checks will generally be carried out by inspection teams operating on every working day in each of the 12 traffic areas. There are also to be a series of two-day "blitzes" around large towns where co-ordinated teams will examine a high proportion of the heavy goods vehicles using the approach roads. The teams will serve prohibition notices on all unfit goods vehicles which they find. The essential purpose of serving these notices, of course, is to prevent the use of a vehicle in a dangerous condition. However, the sudden banning of an unfit vehicle may very well cause the owner a great deal of commercial inconvenience, so that it is also a useful weapon of enforcement.

I should, perhaps, say that our primary aim in this campaign, as, indeed, in all enforcement, is not to punish bad behaviour but to deter it. For this reason, we are giving full and fair warning of our intentions and the areas which will be affected, including the large towns, and I have no doubt that this will lead to a very considerable improvement.

Ultimately, of course, we aim to supplement, but not to supersede, roadside checks by regular annual testing of heavy goods vehicles on similar lines to the tests already applied to the older vehicles of unladen weight up to 30 cwts.