§ 20. Mr. CAPORNasked the Minister of Transport whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that licensing authorities, when issuing excise licences for commercial goods motor vehicles used occasionally, with a container or lift van, do not adopt a uniform system of calculating the weight of the vehicle, inasmuch as in some cases the licence duty is calculated on the combined weight of the vehicle and the container, and in other cases it is calculated on the weight of the vehicle only; and whether he will issue instructions that in the case of such vehicles the licence duty shall be calculated on the weight of the vehicle without the-container?
Mr. STANLEYThe method of ascertaining the unladen weight of a motor vehicle, for taxation purposes, is laid down in Section 26 of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, i.e. that the unladen weight is to be taken to be the weight of the vehicle inclusive of the body and all parts necessary to or ordinarily used with the vehicle, exclusive of water, fuel, accumulators, loose tools and loose equipment. The question whether the weight of a particular container or lift van should under these provisions be included is primarily a matter for decision by the licensing authority concerned, and if necessary, on appeal, by the courts. I have no power to interpret the statute or to give instructions in the matter.
§ Mr. CAPORNIs it not a fact that different licensing authorities are putting different interpretations on the same 1975 words of an Act of Parliament, and is it not desirable that the same interpretation should be given by the various authorities?
Mr. STANLEYIf my hon. Friend's question represents the facts, I say it is most desirable, but I have no power in the matter. It is a matter of the legal interpretation of an Act of Parliament.