§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether there is any statistical evidence that the Ministry of Transport test has not been sufficiently stringent to avoid road accidents caused by defective vehicles.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThere is no recent evidence. A study by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory in the early 1970s showed that mechanical defects were a main contributory factor in about 8 per cent. of accidents. Since then the stringency of the test has been increased in a number of respects, for instance by requiring brakes to be examined on a roller brake tester rather than by a road test.