§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what steps he is taking to reduce the pollution caused by old and badly-serviced buses and coaches;
(2) how many of the buses currently operating on British roads reach acceptable levels in terms of exhaust emissions.
§ Mr. NorrisAll public service vehicles are subject to annual roadworthiness tests which, since September 1992, have included metered checks for diesel smoke. The number of PSVs failing the annual test in 1993–94 was 2,328 out of 86,254 or 2.7 per cent. of the total.
PSVs are also subject to regular roadside checks for both emissions and safety purposes. During 1993–94, 24,521 PSVs were inspected at the roadside in addition to checks at operators' premises. The overall failure rate for the two types of checks was 1.05 per cent. A further 5,165 emissions—only roadside checks resulted in a failure rate of 2.8 per cent.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to encourage bus operators to introduce modern, less polluting buses.
§ Mr. NorrisWe have allocated over £20 million since 1992 for specific local authority bus priority measures. These include a low floor bus demonstration project and the conversion of buses to run on compressed natural gas and liquid petroleum gas.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is the age profile of the buses on British roads.
§ Mr. NorrisThe requested information is given in the following table:
97W
Vehicles Year of first registration Other buses/coaches Minibuses Total 1988 3,189 9,267 12,456 1989 3,242 10,230 13,472 1990 2,897 8,702 11,599 1991 2,124 6,675 8,799 1992 2,324 6,221 8,545 1993 2,656 6,023 8,679 1994 (January, February, March) 688 1,734 2,422 All 61,946 90,709 152,655 The table shows vehicles licensed at the end of March 1994, and recorded by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency as having bus or coach body type, regardless of taxation group.