§ Mr. Speedasked the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he proposes to take to improve the incentives to 16-year-old moped riders to take training and pass the moped test.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI have studied very carefully the substantial response to my Department's paper on training incentives for moped riders. I believe that training for the 16-year-old is extremely important and that present incentives are inadequate. Any new system must provide effective incentives, be workable and easily understood and have no offsetting road safety drawbacks. Of the various proposals canvassed, I believe that the one which most nearly meets these requirements would be to allow riders who had passed both parts of a new moped test to ride a 125cc motor cycle before their 17th birthday and to be exempt from part I of the motor cycle test.
We will be considering the considerable changes needed to both the moped test and the driver licensing arrangements. Meanwhile we will also issue a short paper to interested parties, reporting on the consultation process and outlining the advantages of the preferred option over other alternatives.