§ Mr. Gareth Wardellasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish in the Official Report for the 89W South Wales traffic area, for each year since 1979, the number of vehicle examiners employed by his
South Wales Traffic Area 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 Vehicle examiner staff in post 19 19 17 17 17 20 Public service vehicles n.a. n.a. 3,606 3,541 3,014 n.a. Heavy goods vehicles 28,215 27,098 26,604 26,458 26,528 n.a. Figures for 1979 are not readily available.
Vehicle numbers are not readily available by traffic area, so the data have been extracted from the annual testing statistics and do not therefore include vehicles under one year old. Public service vehicle annual testing statistics are available only from 1982–83 onwards. Figures for HGVs and PSVs for 1985–86 are not yet available.
§ Mr. Gareth Wardellasked the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if he will publish in the Official Report for each year since 1979, the number of public service vehicle examiners engaged in (a) Wales and (b) Great Britain, on inspecting operators' premises;
Vehicle examiner staff in post Traffic area May 1980 May 1981 May 1982 May 1983 May 1984 May 1985 Northern 22 20 21 20 20 22 Yorkshire 32 29 28 28 26 33 North Western 43 41 39 36 30 46 West Midlands 34 34 33 29 29 34 East Midlands 31 28 29 29 29 35 Eastern 22 22 22 19 19 25 South Wales 19 19 17 17 17 20 Western 29 28 28 27 30 29 South Eastern 33 32 31 30 29 30 Metropolitan 37 34 35 39 44 54 Scottish 39 37 35 34 33 40 Total 341 324 318 308 316 368 Figures are not readily available for 1979, nor are separate figures for the whole of Wales. Each vehicle examiner is responsible for a range of duties including inspecting operators premises, spot checks and annual testing; the figures for man years spent on vehicle examiners' activities are not readily available for previous years and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. For 1984–85 the breakdown of vehicle examiner effort on PSV work is as follows:
Great Britain Vehicle examiner man years Inspection of PSV operators' premises including PSVs checked during visits 11 PSV enforcement work including unannounced spot checks and clearance of prohibitions 16 PSV annual test and retests 67 In addition to the vehicle mechanical condition inspections conducted by public service vehicle
90WDepartment, together with the number of public service vehicle and goods vehicles for which they are responsible.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe information is as follows:
(2) if he will publish in the Official Report the number of public service vehicle examiners engaged in spot checks in (a) Wales and (b) Great Britain, for each year since 1979;
(3) if he will publish in the Official Report for each year since 1979, the number of public service vehicle examiners in each traffic area in Great Britain;
(4) if he will publish in the Official Report for each year since 1979 the number of public service vehicle examiners engaged in (a) Wales and (b) Great Britain on annual tests at vehicle testing stations.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe vehicle examiner staff in post figures for the years 1980–85 by traffic area are as follows;
examiners, traffic examiners based in the traffic areas have the duty to ensure that PSVs are correctly licensed and drivers comply in all respects with legislation covering drivers' hours.