Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance on health and safety and insurance his Department provides to people who need to transport oxygen cylinders in private vehicles for healthcare purposes.

The carriage of items such as compressed oxygen in their cars by medical and para-medical staff is regarded as exempt from the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road, known as ADR (a French acronym) provided that measures have been taken to prevent any leakage of the contents in normal conditions of carriage.

It is the responsibility of the user/ operator of the vehicle to ensure that any particular use of the vehicle such as the carriage of oxygen is fully covered by their policy of insurance and to arrange extra cover where it is required. The Department does not give specific guidance on insurance to people transporting these cylinders because individual insurers assess risk differently.