§ Sir Eldon GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has any plans to require the volunteer drivers of vehicles used by charities to convey elderly and frail people to hospitals and day centres to obtain public service vehicle licences; what is the current position with regard to proposals from the European Community; and what estimate he has made of(a) the cost of training such drivers to meet public service vehicle licence standards and (b) the numbers likely to withdraw from such voluntary activities rather than undertake the necessary training courses.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyWe have no such plans. We consider there is no reason on road safety grounds for doing so. We are pressing the European Commission at every level to avoid placing unnecessary restrictions on volunteer drivers.
We believe that its proposals would have significant social and cost consequences for non-commercial voluntary transport operations, not least because of their deterrent effect on volunteer drivers.
We aim to protect our present arrangements in the negotiations in the Council of Ministers.
Practical driver training for minibus drivers by local authorities and voluntary groups is already widespread. We fully support that.