Clause 11.—AGRICULTURAL TRACTORS: CARRIAGE OF PRODUCE ETC. AT AGRI CULTURAL RATE OF DUTY.) (Hansard, 7 July 1959)

§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (Mr. Richard Nugent)
I beg to move, in page 12, line 6 to leave out "in" and to insert: for the purposes of all or any of the following paragraphs by". 1118 It might be for the convenience of the Committee if I dealt, at the same time, with the Amendment in line 9.

§ Mr. Ernest Davies (Enfield, East)
I think that the Joint Parliamentary Secretary might give us a little more information about what the Clause does exactly. He states that the Amendments widen the provision relating to agricultural vehicles going on the roads, but one cannot allow any relaxation of the present regulations without obtaining a certain amount of assurance, particularly with regard to safety.
As far as I can make out from reading the very complicated wording of these Amendments, which replace very much of the originally drafted Clause, it seems that we shall have a lot of push and pull vehicles on the roads. It appears to me that one will be able to have a trailer behind and transport box in front. I may be wrong, but I think that it would help the Committee if we were given a little more explanation.
I believe that there are some 144,000 agricultural vehicles which are licensed under the special provisions of the £2 duty, and if all these are to have the regulations relaxed and will be able to pull as well as push vehicles on the road, then there might be congestion as between one agricultural holding and another or in respect of the carrying of farmers' produce to the market towns.
I hope that the hon. Gentleman will give us a little more explanation. I presume that the vehicles which these agricultural vehicles—which are to a large extent tractors—will pull or push will 1119 be confined to the carriage of farm goods; that is, goods in connection with the carrying out of farming by the owner of the vehicle—and will not be able to carry the goods of other persons. Also, what regulations has the Minister in mind? It seems to me that if we approve the Amendments we shall be giving the Minister a blank cheque to make regulations regarding agricultural vehicles of which we shall be in complete ignorance. We ought to know a little more about this, if the Joint Parliamentary Secretary will be so good as to reply.

§ Mr. Nugent
I shall be very pleased to do so. It is a complicated matter, and I did not wish to trouble the Committee with more details than it requires.
The Clause, as drafted, would allow a transport box to be carried on a tractor and farm goods to be carried in it. It would also enable regulations to be made to allow a tractor to carry a piece of farm machinery, when loaded, on the back of the vehicle and a small transport box on the other end of it; in other words, two implements—one a piece of farm machinery and the other a transport box—at the same time.
The Clause as drafted would not allow the tractor to carry goods in the transport box on the front of the tractor if the piece of farm machinery on the back of the tractor was carrying goods. The Clause as drafted now would enable the regulation to allow goods to be carried on both the pieces of machinery. In practice, it is necessary for a farmer to carry on his tractor a piece of machinery like a seed drill, which would have corn seed or grass seed in it, on the back of the tractor. On the front of the tractor, in the carrying part, he would carry a few sacks of grain, but, as the Clause is drafted, if there were any seeds remaining in the seed drill when the tractor went on the road, an offence would be committed.
Quite clearly, there are times when the seed drill has a little seed left in it, or a chemical sprayer may have a little spray left in it. It is necessary to widen the Clause so that in these complicated agricultural matters we may have the little flexibility which this Amendment would provide. We think that it is a reasonable Amendment. I had a little 1120 experience of agricultural matters in my former office and I can assure the Committee that this Amendment will provide a little flexibility in the movement of machines to fields not adjacent to the farm.
This will be so in the case of the buck rake which farmers use to carry grass about. Our intention would be not to widen the use of the buck rake, which is something which could be dangerous if it went any distance behind the tractor on a public road, and not to widen that to fields not actually adjacent to the farm.
I can give the hon. Member the assurance that what we are doing here will not add to the danger on the road. It is doing no more than to legalise what would be normal, proper farming practice and, if we make regulations, we shall see that they are carefully drawn so that that can be fulfilled. The hon. Member asked whether this would permit the farmer to carry his own goods. The answer is, "Yes". This is for the farmer himself. I think that I have covered the point about the regulations we have in mind Those regulations will deal with the details of the picture I have outlined. After Parliament has approved the Finance Bill, we shall lay regulations covering this matter and I think that they will be perfectly reasonable.