Speedometer Testing (Hansard, 6 February 1992)

§ Lord Brabazon of Tara
My Lords, the regulations governing speedometers in use require only that they be kept in good working order. There is no evidence to suggest that they need to be checked regularly for accuracy and we could not justify encouraging garages to provide such facilities. Checks on the accuracy of speedometers can already be carried out at any of the 450 approved tachograph centres in Great Britain.

§ Lord Allen of Abbeydale
My Lords, is the Minister aware that it is not easy for the private motorist to discover the location of a tachograph centre? Am I right in believing that most speedometers are fast and that it is perfectly legitimate to have one which registers 79½ miles per hour, to be exact, when the actual speed of the car is only 70 miles per hour? With all the cameras with which we are threatened for checking speed, is there not something to be said for encouraging motorists to have a better knowledge of how fast they are travelling than the great majority possess at the moment?

§ Lord Brabazon of Tara
My Lords, the regulations state that the reading can deviate from the true speed of the vehicle by between 0 and plus 10 per cent. plus 4 kilometres per hour. It is therefore biased to prevent the speedometer from understating the true speed of the vehicle. In other words, the speedometer is allowed to register, say, 60 when one is travelling at 55 miles per hour but it is not allowed to register 60 when one is travelling at 65 miles per hour. Therefore, the error is all on the right side.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the Question contains a serious element about the prevention of accidents? It is probable that the overwhelming majority of motorists do not know where to go if they are suspicious of their speedometer readings. Therefore, cannot some publicity be given to the matter so that the conscientious motorist can have his speedometer tested? The fundamental point of the noble Lord's Question relates to the prevention of accidents in addition to an undue and wrongful police summons when a speedometer is not working correctly.

§ Lord Brabazon of Tara
My Lords, as I said in my original Answer, there is no evidence to show that the situation creates a problem, certainly not one that might cause accidents.

§ Lord Underhill
My Lords, is it not the case that few motorists will know the details of the regulations referring to construction and use to which the Minister referred? Is it not the case that in the section giving advice to drivers before driving the Highway Code states: make sure that … your speedometer is in working order"? How does the ordinary motorist know whether, before driving, his speedometer is in working order? Is it proposed that there should be discussions with the motoring organisations, traders and manufacturing organisations to ascertain whether the MOT can be revised and equipment can be standardised? I notice that the Chief Whip is questioning me but I have asked only two questions.

§ Lord Brabazon of Tara
My Lords, I am delighted to answer both questions. There is no fundamental problem. A motorist can easily check whether his speedometer is working reasonably merely by looking at it as he drives along, which I hope he will do frequently. There is no proposal to include the testing of speedometers in the MOT. The cost of the test would have to be increased substantially in order to cover the costs of procuring the specialised equipment, the time to train staff and the extra time to test each vehicle. That is simply not justified in road safety terms.

§ Lord Brain
My Lords, is the Minister aware that one of the major problems with speedometers is that they depend on the tyre pressure, the tyre wear, the load on the car and so forth? There can easily be an error of 5 per cent., usually minus, on the speedometer reading at any time.

§ Lord Brabazon of Tara
My Lords, that is as may be but I should not have thought that it would create too much of a problem.