§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Transport which of the recommendations of the Armitage report on "Lorries, People and the Environment," have been superseded by other decisions of his Department; what those decisions were; and when they took place.
§ Mr. RidleyThe White Paper on the Armitage report (Cmnd. 8439) remains the document on which my policy on lorries, people and the environment is based.
§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Transport which of the recommendations of the Armitage report on "Lorries, People and the Environment", he has implemented; and when they were implemented.
§ Mr. RidleySince my hon. Friend last reported on 3 April 1984 on progress on implementation of measures in response to the Armitage report a further 25 bypasses have been added to the trunk road programme with 177 in preparation or under construction that spray suppression equipment should be fitted to new trailers was effective from 1 May 1985. Work on further noise reduction is continuing. Motoring taxes (VED and fuel duty) on lorries as a whole have exceeded road track costs by a substantial margin since before 1980 and those on each class of lorry have done so since March 1985. VED rates on lorries below 12 tonnes have been reduced by 19 per cent. to 24 per cent. since 1982 and the emphasis of taxation has been shifted each year towards the heaviest lorries. The position on the 58 main recommendations can be summarised as:
- 51 accepted (5 in part), of these:
- 38 recommendations have been implemented
- 9 are being implemented
- 4 are addressed not to Goverment but to local authorities and hauliers.