Road Vehicles (Type-Approval) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Debate between Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick and Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)]

My Lords, I know there are a lot of colleagues from Northern Ireland present. Before we hear the elaboration here, I would just like to get some clarification, if I may, from the Minister.

We are, of course, party to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe—1958 was the agreement signed by the United Kingdom—as are member states and the EU itself. Indeed, I was quite amazed to read the amount of regulation that the United Nations has applied in connection with motor vehicles. I speak not with direct knowledge but as vice-chairman of the Historic Vehicles All-Party Parliamentary Group, but it seems to me very interesting and really quite amazing that we cannot see the coming together of regulations, when some of the exemptions have clearly negatively affected the marketplace in Northern Ireland.

The detail in which the United Nations goes into these matters is quite extraordinary. For instance, on the emergency call systems that are now installed in all new motor cars, it requires confirmation of the details. Whether it is to be through 2G or 3G, as it was known, or under the new 4G or 5G speed of communication has to be specifically stated under United Nations Regulation 144. When it comes to ISOFIX—child seats, safety seats, and of course it is vital that they should be safe—the United Nations again has a clear regulation in place. Automated lane keeping systems that many new cars now have installed come under United Nations Regulation 157. Yet we seem to be behind the curve.

Our friends in America, particularly Mr Musk and his FSD Supervised—that is, the driving system where a car drives itself in an automated fashion—is now moved to a category called v14.2, which he has now asked the European authorities to approve for the markets both in Europe as a whole and in the United Kingdom in the hope that it will be installed or available from 2026. I wonder whether the United Nations has been consulted or if it is going to come in with its own regulations, which would give control of this situation more broadly.

Of course, it is right that Northern Ireland should not be in any way in difficulties over this. It is aligned with the United Nations, but in one or two cases—type approvals and so on—one or two elements seem to have been missed, so that Northern Ireland is out of sequence with the rest of the United Kingdom on certain of these regulations. Is not one of the answers to this to try to make sure that the United Nations umbrella is more available in order to oblige the manufacturers to make sure that the markets are equal and there are not these disparities, which are often taken for commercial reasons, due to the size of the relevant markets?

I happen to be in favour of alignment when it comes to standards in motor cars—I think it makes sense—but I am disappointed that the separation between one part of the UK and another in these regulations is both unfair and biased in such a way that it deprives one vital part of the United Kingdom of the opportunity to have commercial success in relation to what is undoubtedly a very useful United Kingdom enterprise.

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a member of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, which considered these regulations, and, like others, of the Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee, which also dealt in some small way with this issue, in that when we were in Newry, we took evidence from a representative of one of the car dealerships, and in fact I have had further discussions with him.

I would say that the root cause of all this is Brexit. Brexit means less choice and more cost for new car sales. In fact, after Brexit I was a victim of that, because I was seeking to purchase a new Renault Clio, and it took me some seven months in 2022 to secure that new car, because all the parts arrived from France, they were constructed and put together in Britain, and then the car was brought to Northern Ireland along with other similar cars. Then, when I got a flat tyre, it transpired that the wrong spare had been placed in the car. Therefore, it caused a lot of difficulties and challenges.

A consequence of Brexit is divergence. The people of Northern Ireland voted on a majority basis to remain within the European Union. Surely, safety standards in the UK and EU in terms of car manufacturing are similar, if not the same, so surely a solution could be found there. The report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee states:

“While the existence of two vehicle approval regimes in the UK is a consequence of the Windsor Framework, we urge the DfT to consider all potential barriers that manufacturers may face in obtaining dual approval and the resulting impact on NI”.


Our Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee, back in April and May this year, wrote to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. In his response to our chair, the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, the Secretary of State said that the Government were

“keen that Northern Ireland consumers have access to the same vehicles and models … as in Great Britain, and a key part of that is ensuring manufacturers can dual-approve vehicles to both the GB and EU type approval schemes”.

Having talked to the dealership, I note that it cannot understand and finds it totally inexplicable that the same standards in the EU and GB do not exist. The Secretary of State further states:

“Our goal is to ensure that the regulations that apply in the UK work well for businesses and to address practical issues where we can. We are working closely with manufacturers to ensure that UK-wide approvals for vehicles are available, and are considering what more we can do to smooth processes and fix any issues that may arise”.


I ask my noble friend the Minister: what further progress has been made in relation to this issue, as the Department for Transport has overall responsibility? In fact, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland says in that letter that

“we continue to monitor regulatory activity in the EU and have recently adopted consistent rules for the design of rear registration plate space on vehicles. The Government intends to make announcements shortly on its intention in regard to a number of other EU regulations, including the Euro 6e emission standard”.

I ask my noble friend the Minister if he could advise us on that.

I will ask some other questions. Has the Department for Transport considered the delay in procuring cars, as they have to comply with certain regulations, and the impact on the local economy? Like the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, I was told that there are problems for Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Renault, Vauxhall and Citroën. People want to access such cars. They have used them traditionally, and they want to continue to use them, because they are cost effective.

What impact will this delay in the provision of certain EU car models to Northern Ireland have on our local economy? The noble Lord, Lord Dodds, has already amplified that, but we want a solution to that, and we always have to remember that. I am clearly somebody who wants to see a route back to membership of the EU. I support the Windsor Framework but, where there are obstacles and challenges, they should be resolved and the Government should work directly with the EU as part of the reset in order to try to achieve something that is meaningful, practical and pragmatic. Last week, a BBC story emerged out of the Northern Ireland Assembly economy committee in relation to this issue.

Undoubtedly, we need the challenges, delays and lack of knowledge among businesses around the Windsor Framework to be resolved as quickly as possible. In that regard, I ask the Minister to outline when these issues around new car sales and approvals will be resolved, and to outline what discussions have taken place with the European Union to ensure that this happens.

Furthermore, when will we receive responses to the recently published reports, which dealt with the challenges and fissures in the system? One, the Independent Review of the Windsor Framework, was produced by my noble friend Lord Murphy; one, Strengthening Northern Ireland’s Voice in the Context of the Windsor Framework, was produced by our Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee; and the third was produced by the Independent Monitoring Panel. They dealt with the challenges, difficulties and issues that need to be resolved. I agree that there may need to be a delay in the transition to this, in order to ensure that those difficulties can be resolved, but we must all remember that with Brexit came divergence and that it is difficult to achieve convergence in those circumstances.