Vehicle Regulations

Thursday 16th May 2024 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Mark Harper)]

I am pleased to inform the House that today I am publishing a strategy setting out our approach to the future regulation of road vehicles.

Following our departure from the EU, we have the freedom to rethink the “type approval” rules which apply to all cars, vans, motorcycles and other vehicles sold in the UK.

While maintaining our high standards of safety and environmental protection, wherever possible we will reduce the administrative burden of demonstrating compliance with regulations.

We will build a framework based on three key principles:

Use international standards wherever possible—making regulation cheaper to follow for importers and exporters.

Deregulate low-risk areas and accept alternative national standards where international standards do not exist or are not suitable. If we don’t need to regulate, we won’t. If products can be proved safe in a comparable jurisdiction, we won’t impose the cost of unnecessary retesting.

Introduce UK-specific rules only where necessary, for example to introduce new technology more quickly, to simplify administrative requirements for industry or where we need to act for safety reasons.

In the short term, we will implement these principles with a three-year programme of reform to retained EU regulations. This will include options for future emission regulation and plans to introduce new safety technologies, such as automated lane keeping, and regulation to strengthen cyber security.

I will place a copy of “A Vision for GB Type Approval” in the Libraries of both Houses.

[HCWS473]