§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of Transport whether he will give, for the latest and most convenient stated date, the numbers of vehicles on the road known or estimated to be exempt from the requirement to have front seat belts; and what information he has as to the extent to which such vehicles have, since the introduction of the compulsory use of the seat belt, been involved in accidents where the driver or front seat passenger has been injured or killed due to not using a seat belt.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThere are about 1½ million road vehicles—other than two-wheelers—which are exempt from the seat belt requirement; these are mainly commercial vehicles. The numbers of old cars in this total cannot be estimated accurately and is falling rapidly. There were around 4,000 front seat occupants of such vehicles who were casualties during 1982, but no data are yet available for 1983.