§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Transport what action he has taken, following his Department's discussions with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders on 15th July 1977, to grant small volume car manufacturers exemption from the national type approval regulations.
§ Mr. HoramNo exemption has been granted to low volume producers. Any such exemption can only be granted by making statutory regulations, which would have to be circulated in draft for comment, and, while I would consider carefully any formal application, an exemption could be justified only if there were exceptional circumstances affording substantial grounds for such action and if road safety was unlikely to be jeopardised in any way.
I recognise that type approval can bear more heavily on low volume producers and my Department has indicated on several occasions its willingness to discuss with them the most economical way in 511W which they can satisfy the regulations. A number of meetings have been held with individual companies. We expect to grant the first type approval for a vehicle produced by a low volume producer in the next few weeks.