§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to paragraph 1.43 of the White Paper, "A New Deal for Transport", what additional measures he proposes for the impounding of illegally operating lorries. [67615]
§ Ms Glenda Jackson[holding answer 25 January 19991: We remain committed to introducing a scheme for the impounding of illegally operated heavy goods vehicles. The consultation exercise carried out last year showed that there was overwhelming support for such a scheme. We believe that detaining illegally operated heavy goods vehicles would provide an effective sanction against unlicensed operators by preventing them from continuing to operate and by acting as a deterrent to discourage other hauliers from ignoring the laws on operator licensing.