§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the enforcement of traffic requirements for the maintenance of driving hours and overloading of lorries in the north-west region and elsewhere during the past six months; and if he will publish in the Official Report the total numbers of inspections undertaken and the results.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyDuring the six months to September 1986, vehicle examiners carried out 6,555 maintenance inspections in the north-west, resulting in 787 prohibitions. National figures are not yet available for this period, but during the year ending 31 March 1986, 101,075 maintenance inspections were carried out, of which 13,797 resulted in prohibitions.
Traffic examiners carried out 4,158 weight checks on lorries in the north-western traffic area during the six months to September 1986 and found 652 to be overloaded; 70,000 tachograph charts were checked and 10,109 breaches of the regulations found. Over the whole country during this period 33,822 lorries were weighed and 6,426 found to be overloaded; 290,000 tachograph charts were checked.