Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the exemption from MOT testing of classic vehicles which are at least 40 years old.
Answered by Jesse Norman
EU Directive 2014/45 enabled Member States to exempt vehicles over 30 years old from periodic roadworthiness testing. Following implementation of this Directive, changes to the MOT exemption criteria for vehicles of historic interest came into force on 20 May 2018, in Great Britain. These changes were made following public consultation and publication of an impact assessment. No further formal review of the effectiveness of these changes has been conducted.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons Mobile Batching Concrete Plants are not entitled to operate outside of standard legal gross vehicle weight limits.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In the absence of explicit applicable provisions to the contrary, mobile concrete batching plant are subject to the standard legal weight limits for vehicles as defined in regulations. However, the Department has recently announced that it has put in place an arrangement to enable the legal operation of some of these vehicles above these limits for a temporary 10 year period. This is in recognition of the historic custom and practice of the operation of many of these vehicles.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of EU Directives 2014/45/EU and 2014/47/EU in improving road safety.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Europe-wide assessments of proposals for the two EU Directives were made during their development. Limited changes to legislation for Great Britain to implement them will be in force by 20th May 2018. Impact assessments (including related to safety) of changes related to vehicles of historic interest and the testing of certain types of heavy goods vehicles have been published by the Department for Transport. Other changes had limited effects. Reviews of the effects of the four statutory instruments, which implement the changes in Great Britain, are required by May 2023.
Asked by: Lord Steel of Aikwood (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, prior to the introduction of the exemption from MOT tests for vehicles aged 40 years and over, they plan to issue guidance to motor retailers to avoid valuable historic vehicles in good condition which are registered with the DVLA being scrapped under scrappage discount schemes.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government has no plans to provide specific guidance on scrappage of vehicles of historical interest. Legislation will introduce a 40 year rolling exemption from MOT testing for these vehicles, providing they have not been substantially altered.
Officials are working, including with advice from the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs, to finalise draft guidance on how to identify whether a vehicle has been substantially altered and this will be published before the legislation comes into force in May 2018. We have not so far seen significant evidence of scrappage discount schemes encouraging the scrappage of valuable older vehicles.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people received an exemption from the vehicle excise duty for historic cars in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2016-17.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The information is not recorded in the format requested. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s vehicle records change constantly as vehicle licensing and registration transactions are processed, so that the information requested can only be provided as a snapshot at a particular time. The table below provides the number of vehicles in the historic and disabled tax classes in February 2015, 2016 and 2017:
Tax Class | Feb-15 | Feb-16 | Feb-17 |
Historic | 532,239 | 570,430 | 604,174 |
Disabled | 1,345,446 | 1,315,103 | 1,266,523 |
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many disabled motorists received an exemption from the vehicle excise duty in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2016-17.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The information is not recorded in the format requested. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s vehicle records change constantly as vehicle licensing and registration transactions are processed, so that the information requested can only be provided as a snapshot at a particular time. The table below provides the number of vehicles in the historic and disabled tax classes in February 2015, 2016 and 2017:
Tax Class | Feb-15 | Feb-16 | Feb-17 |
Historic | 532,239 | 570,430 | 604,174 |
Disabled | 1,345,446 | 1,315,103 | 1,266,523 |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many motor vehicles in each vehicle excise duty class are registered to Scottish addresses by registration (a) before and (b) after 1 April 2017.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The vehicle database changes on a daily basis. The most recent figures show a total of 3,123,773 motor vehicles were registered to Scottish addresses.
Out of the vehicle excise duty (VED) classes, 20 are exempt from payment of VED. Further information on vehicle excise duty rates can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-of-vehicle-tax-v149.
The following table shows the number of motor vehicles registered in Scotland for use on the public road in the vehicle excise duty classes listed.
Tax Class | Vehicles First Registered *(a) | Vehicles First Registered *(b) | Total |
Agricultural Machine | 50,487 | 388 | 50,875 |
Alternative Fuel Car | 14,570 | 223 | 14,793 |
Ambulance | 1,257 | 6 | 1,263 |
Powered Bicycle | 122,472 | 931 | 123,403 |
Bus | 13,467 | 94 | 13,561 |
Crown Vehicle | 1,259 | 4 | 1,263 |
Diesel Car | 913,973 | 3,037 | 917,010 |
Disabled | 109,835 | 2,556 | 112,391 |
Disabled Passenger Vehicle | 718 | 1 | 719 |
Electric Motorcycle | 105 | 0 | 105 |
Electric Vehicle | 2,875 | 68 | 2,943 |
EURO 4 Light Goods Vehicle | 8,396 | 1 | 8,397 |
Fire Engine | 839 | 2 | 841 |
Fire Service | 712 | 3 | 715 |
General Haulage | 117 | 0 | 117 |
Gritting Machine | 486 | 0 | 486 |
HGV | 33,106 | 407 | 33,513 |
HGV Combined Transport | 52 | 0 | 52 |
Historic Vehicle | 30,592 | 53 | 30,645 |
Lifeboat Haulage | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Light Goods Vehicle | 251,007 | 1,834 | 252,841 |
Lighthouse Authority | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Limited Use | 4,642 | 11 | 4,653 |
Mine Rescue | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Mowing Machine | 1,403 | 36 | 1,439 |
NHS Vehicle | 1,148 | 9 | 1,157 |
Petrol Car | 1,334,611 | 5,171 | 1,339,782 |
Police | 1,982 | 2 | 1,984 |
Private HGV | 4,961 | 33 | 4,994 |
Private Light Goods | 182,858 | 308 | 183,166 |
Recovery Vehicle | 1,287 | 2 | 1,289 |
Reduced Pollution Bus | 210 | 0 | 210 |
Reduced Pollution HGV | 925 | 0 | 925 |
Reduced Pollution Special Types | 12 | 0 | 12 |
Reduced Pollution Trailer HGV | 36 | 0 | 36 |
Small Island Vehicles | 648 | 1 | 649 |
Snow Plough | 104 | 0 | 104 |
Special Types | 416 | 16 | 432 |
Special Vehicle | 14,143 | 272 | 14,415 |
Special Vehicle Trailer Duty | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Steam | 30 | 0 | 30 |
Trailer HGV | 896 | 6 | 902 |
Powered Tricycle | 1,636 | 2 | 1,638 |
Grand Total | 3,108,196 | 15,477 | 3,123,773 |
* (a) up to 31 March 2017
* (b) on or after 1 April 2017
Asked by: Lord Steel of Aikwood (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the decision by the government of Sweden to abolish testing for all road vehicles over 50 years old, what consideration they have given to applying a similar rule in the UK.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A consultation has been completed about exempting more vehicles of historic interest from testing, given an increased flexibility offered by changes in EU-wide standards, to which Sweden is also responding. The UK already exempts pre-1960 vehicles from testing and consideration is being given to changing that threshold, with a lead consultation option of exempting most vehicles more than 40 years old.
Asked by: Lord Steel of Aikwood (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
Her Majesty's Government whether, before creating any new category of road vehicles of historic interest, they will engage in consultation with representatives of the estimated 250,000 users of such vehicles; and how many such vehicles they estimate to exist.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department for Transport ran a public consultation about possible changes related to the testing of vehicles of historic interest, with a preferred option to move from the current position of an exemption for pre-1960 vehicles to a rolling 40 year exemption for vehicles which have not been substantially modified. There were more than 2,200 responses, including many from users and owners of historic vehicles. These responses are currently being considered and we hope to announce a response to this consultation later this year.
An initial impact assessment was prepared which assessed that there were about 192,000 pre-1960 registered vehicles which are currently exempt from the MOT requirement. The preferred option identified in the consultation exempted an estimated further 278,000 vehicles. A final validated impact assessment will be published along with the consultation response summary.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many penalty notices the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has issued in respect of vehicle tax where the tax due was £0.00 in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Jones
There are currently around 37 million licensed vehicles recorded on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) database with a further three million vehicles subject to a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN).
In 2016 the DVLA issued 15,656 late licensing penalties to keepers of vehicles that attract a nil rate of vehicle excise duty who did not renew their vehicle licence.
There are a number of reasons why a vehicle may attract a nil rate of vehicle excise duty. These include vehicles where the registered keeper is in receipt of, or is acting on behalf of an individual in receipt of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment or where vehicles are in a Historic, Crown or Emergency tax class.
All vehicle licences must be renewed on an annual or six-monthly basis whether vehicle excise duty is payable or not. This helps to ensure that the keeper information held on the DVLA’s record is accurate and that the details relating to the nil rate of vehicle excise duty remain correct. For example, a nil rate of vehicle excise duty may no longer be applicable if the registered keeper changes or the current keeper’s circumstances change.