§ Mr. Porterasked the Minister of Transport when he will publish the Government's response to the Foster report on road haulage operators' licensing.
§ Mr. FowlerI have now completed my assessment of this detailed report in the light of the large number of comments that have been received by my Department since it was published. I have been impressed by the thoroughness with which Professor Foster and his colleagues carried out their task. I welcome in particular their general endorsement of the present road haulage licensing system with its triple objectives of promoting road safety, helping to protect the environment and preventing undue damage to the roads.
I accept that the system could be improved in a number of detailed respects, and I am taking steps where this can be done without legislation, for example, the introduction of roadside checks at nights and at weekends. Other enforcement measures will require legislation.
Finally, there are the difficult environmental problems. The Foster Committee recommended a much wider and deeper scrutiny of such issues than its terms of reference allowed. I appointed Sir Arthur Armitage to conduct just such an inquiry, and I look forward to receiving his report in the autumn. In these circumstances, it would clearly be right to consider all 850W the inter-related environmental issues together in the wider perspective that will be provided soon by Sir Arthur Armitage's inquiry.