Community Drivers’ Hours Offences (Enforcement) Regulations 2017

Baroness Randerson Excerpts

Wednesday 29th November 2017 Grand Committee

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen (Con)]

My Lords, these regulations are being made in order to enhance the enforcement agencies’ powers in respect of the drivers’ hours rules. For the benefit of your Lordships who may not be aware I shall make a few introductory remarks about those rules.

The drivers’ hours rules are central to keeping our roads safe. They set maximum driving times and minimum break and rest times for most commercial drivers of both lorries and coaches. For example, the rules mean that after four and a half hours driving, a driver must take a 45-minute break. Daily driving time is normally limited to nine hours.

The consequences of drivers working when fatigued can, of course, be catastrophic, so although we can be pleased to note that road accidents involving coaches and lorries have been reducing over time, we must not be complacent. The rules are enforced by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and the police at targeted roadside checks and also by visiting operators’ premises. Most breaches of the rules are swiftly identified and efficiently dealt with by means of fixed financial penalties. More serious breaches are referred to the traffic commissioners or lead to prosecution.

These regulations extend the use of fixed financial penalties so that they are available for certain drivers’ hours offences committed within 28 days of a drivers’ hours compliance check. At present, this fixed-penalty approach can be taken only for current offences—those that are being committed at the time of the check. But the tachograph, the device which is used to check compliance with the rules, has a historical memory. These “on-the-record” or “historical” drivers’ hours offences can be sanctioned at present, but only through court prosecution. This is time consuming and costly, as your Lordships can imagine, both for the enforcement agencies and for the operator and driver involved.

It creates a particular difficulty in respect of non-UK drivers, which is perhaps where the biggest consequence of this change will be. Although they may be issued with court summons, regrettably they do not generally respond to them. It is costly and may be impracticable to arrest them and hold them in police custody. The regulations will enable the enforcement agencies to issue fixed financial penalties for infringements of the drivers’ hours rules by non-UK and UK drivers committed in the 28 days preceding a compliance check. The regulations will also bring the UK into line with several other European countries, including France and Germany, which already issue on-the-spot penalties for historical drivers’ hours offences. In addition, it will save the enforcement agencies time and money by giving them the option of taking fewer cases to court.

The new powers will not be used indiscriminately. The DVSA intends to carefully consider all relevant circumstances and the gravity of the offence before taking any action and will exercise its discretion when dealing with minor infringements. My department undertook a formal consultation on these changes. They received broad support from respondents, including trade associations. I beg to move.

[Baroness Randerson (LD)]

My Lords, these regulations relate to on-the-spot fines for historical road traffic offences—that is, offences committed within 28 days prior to the driver being stopped. Drivers’ hours legislation is an important aspect of road safety standards in this country, as well as, of course, an important aspect of the welfare of the drivers concerned. These regulations apply to the so-called historical offences committed outside the UK in other EU member states and some third-party countries.

A very high percentage of freight traffic on our roads is driven by foreign drivers. Many of them are actually EU citizens resident in this country and working for UK companies here and abroad, but many of them are foreign drivers who have simply come to the UK to deliver and collect goods. Therefore, the future co-ordination and harmonisation with the rest of the EU is vital to our road safety in future—unless of course we are going to hermetically seal our borders, as some Brexit supporters seem keen to do.

I particularly want to ask the Minister about Northern Ireland, because on the island of Ireland, drivers cross all the time from one side of the border to the other. They do not even notice that they have crossed that border in many cases. It happens much more frequently and much less formally than in the rest of the UK because that border is invisible. There has been a great deal of discussion about future customs checks, but clearly the harmonisation of drivers’ hours is also vital. Therefore, do the Government intend to keep in step with EU rules on this, now and in future—deal or no deal? It is not just a case of whether the Government intend to accept the EU rules as they currently stand. The Government need to commit to keeping the EU rules as they are amended and changed over time, which happens fairly regularly. Unless Britain is entirely in step with the EU, now and in perpetuity, there will be huge problems for drivers in Ireland. In effect, a border will be created.