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Tenth Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation
Thursday 15 July 2004
[Mr. Alan Hurst in the Chair]
Draft Vehicle Testing (Temporary Exemptions) (Northern Ireland) Order 2004
2.30 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Angela Smith): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Vehicle Testing (Temporary Exemptions) (Northern Ireland) Order 2004.
It is a pleasure to be on a Committee with you again, Mr. Hurst. I am familiar with your customary fairness and good humour, which I hope will last for the duration of the sitting.
The draft of the order was laid before the House on 29 June 2004. I have introduced the order to enable the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland to make regulations to provide for issuing certificates of temporary exemption, which would exempt private cars and motor cycles from normal vehicle testing requirements for a specified temporary period, and to permit such certificates to be used for the purposes of obtaining vehicle excise licences.
Certificates of temporary exemption would be issued as an alternative to vehicle test certificates only in exceptional circumstances. That means a failure in the supply of essential services or some other unexpected event, such as a fire, an accident or industrial action. The power to issue such certificates already exists for goods vehicles, but no such contingency arrangements are available for private cars and motor cycles. The order will regularise that position.
I am introducing the order as a matter of urgency and without the normal consultation period for such an order. I apologise to Members for that, but there are good reasons for the decision. The order will alleviate some of the pressures created as a result of industrial action, which is impacting on the capacity of the Driver and Vehicle Testing Agency in Northern Ireland to deliver its vehicle testing services. That has resulted in many drivers being unable to use their vehicles legally on the roads or to get vehicle excise licences. It is also impacting adversely on the Northern Ireland economy.
Issuing certificates of temporary exemption will temporarily remove some vehicles from the testing cycle and free up capacity to allow the Driver and Vehicle Testing Agency to focus on other vehicles such as buses, taxis and goods vehicles used on international journeys. It will also enable the agency to manage the backlog of work that will remain when the ongoing industrial action ends.
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Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West) (Con): It is indeed a great pleasure to be under your chairmanship again, Mr. Hurst.
I know that the explanatory memorandum is heavily caveated and does not form part of the order, but this really takes the biscuit. Under background and policy objectives, it states:
''If testing facilities at the Driver and Vehicle Testing Agency in Northern Ireland were to be reduced or become completely unavailable, motorists would be forced''—
and so it goes on. It says, ''If''. Where have the Government been since 17 May when the action started?
On 29 June, in column 262W of Hansard, the Minister told my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Lidington) that, up to 24 June, there had been 43,532 cancellations of MOT tests. Can she tell us how many there have been up till now, how many she anticipates by the time the order comes into force—which raises the question of when that will happen—and why she is introducing the order only today, when the waiting time for an MOT test at a centre that remains open and functioning is 14 weeks? Well, it was certainly 14 weeks on 24 June. It might be longer now. Perhaps she can tell us.
Since 3 June, as the Minister pointed out, temporary certificates have been issued to goods vehicles under rule 247. Why have owners of ordinary private vehicles and motor cycles had to wait for this order to be introduced in the penultimate week of the Session?
I want to ask a question about both orders—the one before us and the one that secures the issue of test exemption certificates to haulage vehicles. To what extent are those acceptable outside the United Kingdom, particularly in respect of the European Union and the Republic? What estimate has the Minister made of the impact of the situation on the competitiveness of the haulage industry, particularly regarding trade that goes to the Republic of Ireland?
Individuals have been told to check with their insurers whether the changes affect them. Guidance has been given that they are unlikely to be affected, but what analysis has the Department undertaken of the situation with respect to insurers? What are people to do when their insurance does not cover them in the absence of an MOT certificate?
Several people, not least those in the Northern Ireland Public Service Association, which is a bit rich in the circumstances, have raised the issue of road safety. The Minister will be aware that more than a fifth of tests are failures, so there is a significant possibility that non-roadworthy vehicles—notwithstanding the duty to keep vehicles roadworthy—may be on the roads. It has been suggested that spot checks may be made to deal with that problem. Will she tell us about the Government's plans to implement those checks and what estimate they have made of the inconvenience that the checks will cause the motoring public?
Committee members will have received representations from the Northern Ireland Public Service Association. I have certainly received them,
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and I doubt that I am the only one. It says that, notwithstanding the dispute beginning on 11 December last year, Ministers have simply refused to come to the negotiating table. It also says that the situation has been exacerbated by the Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the hon. Member for Dudley, South (Mr. Pearson), who refused to allow any serious negotiation but reached the negotiating table only last week. This Minister owes the Committee an explanation of the Government's position; invariably, there are two sides to the story.
By the beginning of July, there had been 5,700 driving test cancellations, so the problem affects not only MOT certificates. The Federation of Small Businesses has made it clear that 30 driving instructors have already lost their jobs and the Minister referred to the effects on the Northern Ireland economy. Will she give us her assessment of those effects?
In an answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow), the hon. Member for Dudley, South said that some £21.3 million of farm payments have been held up by the dispute. This Minister has brought an order before us that is intended to give relief to motorists in respect of MOT certificates. I hope it is in order to ask her for an indication of the measures that the Government plan to use to deal with the rest of the effects of the dispute.
The Chairman: Order. The hon. Gentleman highlights the position, but it would not be in order for the Minister to reply in those terms so he should direct his mind to the measure before us.
Mr. Swayne: The Minister has had a fortunate escape at your discretion, Mr. Hurst. I stand absolutely corrected. I am certain that it is in order for me to say that the Northern Ireland Public Service Association will regard with some satisfaction the effects of its action. At minimum cost to its members, it has taken highly targeted and highly effective measures to hit the public, as we can see from the order.
I hope that the Minister draws what is happening to the attention of her hon. and right hon. Friends who occupy the Treasury Bench on this side of the water. She will be aware of the noises that have been made in the past week consequent on the Chancellor's statement on Monday about industrial action. I have no doubt that they will be analysing both the effectiveness of what has happened in Northern Ireland and the read-across. I hope that Ministers on this side of the water are not caught napping as they were in Northern Ireland, which is shown by the tardiness with which the order has been introduced.
The order is symptomatic of the over-government and the bad government of the Province. On Thursday last week, my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury drew to the attention of the Northern Ireland Grand Committee some shocking inefficiencies in the government of Northern Ireland. It would not be in order for me to go down that road today, but I have no doubt that it is in order to draw this Committee's attention to the fact that the motorist and everyone else in Northern Ireland is not getting value for money.
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We are dealing with a province the size of Cheshire with a population not much different from that of the county of Kent, yet the cost of administering the Province is set to rise by 23 per cent. to £935.6 million.
The Chairman: Order. The hon. Gentleman of course knows that in this matter he is being mischievous and thoroughly enjoying himself. Nevertheless, he must restrict his comments to the order before the Committee.
Mr. Swayne: Quite right, Mr. Hurst. That was quite wrong of me, but despite almost £1 billion being spent, the motorist cannot get an MOT certificate without waiting 14 weeks. My constituents can get an MOT certificate at their convenience at any number of garages in my constituency, but people cannot do that in Northern Ireland. I think that Minister's answer yesterday to my hon. Friend the Member for East Antrim (Mr. Beggs) at column 1198W of Hansard is evidence of breathtaking complacency.
The reality is that the people of Northern Ireland ought to be able to get their MOT certificates in a modern, ordinary and convenient way—how our constituents get them on this side of the water. Given the huge administrative resources at the disposal of Ministers—you so rightly chided me about this, Mr. Hurst—it is time that they dragged the administration of Northern Ireland out of the dark ages.
2.44 pm
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