Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether approval orders for breath test measuring devices are statutory instruments, subordinate to primary legislation.

Approval orders are made under powers conferred by the section 7(1)(a) of the Road Traffic Act (1988) to approve a type of a device to analyse specimens of breath. Approval orders for breath test instruments are not statutory instruments.

The Road Traffic Offenders Act (1988) makes the results of such tests (obtained from an approved device) admissible in evidence in court. It has a sound legal basis and has legal effect. It extends and applies to England, Wales and Scotland. The admissibility of such evidence is a long established principle and one which the courts deal with on a daily basis.