Lead-free Petrol

HC Deb 24 July 1991 vol 195 cc549-50W

Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proposals his Department has to stimulate the use of lead-free petrol.

Mr. Chope

Regulations already in force—SI 198 No. 1522—require all spark-ignition cars first manufactured on or after 1 October 1990 to be capable of running on unleaded petrol. On 26 June the EC Council of Ministers adopted an amending directive requiring, among other things, that all spark-ignition cars first used on or after 31 December 1992 must be constructed so that they can run only on unleaded petrol. Regulations introducing the directive into United Kingdom law will be laid later this year. As a fiscal incentive to greater use of unleaded petrol, the Chancellor in his last Budget further increased the duty differential between it and leaded petrol.