HC Deb 20 July 1977 vol 935 cc1575-6
4. Mr. Marten

asked the Secretary of State for Transport whether he will make a further statement about negotiations with EEC Ministers on drivers' hours and distances.

29. Mr. Moate

asked the Secretary of State for Transport whether he will make a further statement about negotiations with EEC Ministers on drivers' hours and distances.

Mr. William Rodgers

I have nothing at present to add to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan (Mr. Fitch) on 1st July.

Mr. Marten

Will the Minister give the Government's current views on the question of distances and rest hours in this proposal from the EEC? At the next Council of Ministers meeting, will he tell the bureaucratic busybodies in Brussels that we are perfectly happy to have a national policy, except, perhaps, where it goes across frontiers?

Mr. Rodgers

I do not think that it is only the bureaucratic busybodies in Brussels who are involved here. There are also the views of our eight partners in the EEC, who see advantages in the legislation on drivers' hours that we ourselves have not so clearly seen. The Government's view was clearly stated by myself in Luxembourg and set out in the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan. We believe that the so-called safeguard provisions should be implemented in a staged way—in other words, over a period of time from 1st January.

Mr. Dalyell

Dissociating myself from the insults of the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Marten), may I ask what the proposed timetable is and what the pressures are?

Mr. Rodgers

The proposed timetable is precisely something that I hoped to have been able to discuss at Luxembourg. As my hon. Friend knows, there was an objection in principle to the whole idea of staged implementation rather than implementation from 1st January. It was that objection in principle with which I was mainly dealing. I hope that we shall get a reasonable period for the staging of implementation, but that is still open to negotiation.

Mr. John Evans

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that if the new Commission regulation does not come into force this year, the 1969 regulation automatically comes into force on 1st January? Will he further accept that the 1969 regulation lays down a maximum of 280 miles or 450 kilometres, and that the driver can drive for only eight hours within any 24-hour period?

Mr. Rodgers

I am sure that my hon. Friend correctly states the position. I should, perhaps, simply add that I think that members of the Community have an interest in a settlement of this matter of amendments to Regulation 543/69. Therefore, I am still hopeful that there will be a negotiated package, which will be to the advantage of everyone.