§ Mr. Simeonsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the inland facilities used by his Department for the checking of foreign lorries returning from Great Britain to the Continent to ensure that they are not overloaded; and if he will indicate the number of prosecutions since 1st September 1972 in respect of these loads including the name of the court involved.
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§ Mr. PeytonOver the country as a whole my staff make use of some 260 weighing sites for carrying out checks on the loading of domestic and foreign heavy goods vehicles. Urgent steps are being taken to increase this number substantially. Foreign vehicles found to be overloaded are treated in the same way as domestic vehicles: they are prohibited from proceeding further and forced to offload. Foreign drivers are normally summonsed only when they have been arrested under Section 3 of the Foreign Vehicles Act 1972. Two drivers have so far been successfully prosecuted: the first at Lewes, the second at Thames Magistrates' Court.