§ Mr. John MarshallTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress he has made in discussions with the European Commission on the treatment of minibus drivers in its proposal for a Council directive on driver licensing.
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§ Mr. Peter BottomleyWe have made good progress in direct discussions with the Commission about minibuses. The Commission's proposals in the second driver licensing directive would require new drivers of minibuses with more than nine seats to take a second test and meet higher fitness standards than for the ordinary car licence.
There is no case, on road safety grounds, for imposing these higher standards.
Commission officials have indicated that they would be prepared to recommend modification of the draft directive so as to allow ordinary car licence holders, including the deaf, to drive minibuses with up to 17 seats, under certain fairly wide-ranging circumstances.
The circumstances envisaged are when minibuses are used for charitable purposes by non-profit-making bodies. The driver should have held a full licence for at least two years, be aged 21 or over and be acting as driver on a voluntary basis. The minibus itself would be limited to a gross weight of 3.5 tonnes excluding any specialist equipment for the carriage of disabled persons.
This approach would allow the continuation of our valuable present arrangements for many services provided for the elderly, the disabled, the sick, youth and religious groups and use by education establishments for all ages. The approach thus covers many categories of real need.
Community bus services provided for these or similar purposes and driven by volunteers would also be unaffected, but other Community bus services and dial-a-ride services would not be covered. The approach would also exclude use by other amenity groups, such as sports clubs, non-charitable organisations and groups of individuals.
Such groups could continue to use minibuses of up to nine seats, but for larger minibuses a driver with the higher licence category would have to be found.
We recognise that this is not wholly satisfactory. It does strike a balance between the case for Community harmonisation and the need for flexibility in transport provision.
We should welcome comments from interested organisations and in particular on the extent of the difficulties which may be caused by the types of minibus use for which a change in licensing requirements would still be required.
We will shortly be issuing a consultation letter to interested organisations, asking for comments to be sent to Department of Transport, Driver and Vehicle Licencing Centre, POLD2, Room D9, Morriston, Swansea SA6 7JL, by Friday 15 September.
I am grateful to individuals, the voluntary groups and the media in the United Kingdom and other parts of the EC for helping to make the case clear through the EC.