§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what research has been undertaken to date by his Department in developing a standard method of measuring noise levels from moving vehicles.
Mr. CarlisleAs the matter is within the remit of the Secretary of State for Transport, I have been asked to reply. A new vehicle type-approval test was established in the 1960s, as since then the United Kingdom has applied relevant EC directives which are subject to it. More recently, the Department of Transport has been carrying out research concerning the noise generated by tyre/road100W interaction and supporting the work of an International Standards Organisation (ISO) working group looking at traffic noise. This group is evolving a Transport Research Laboratory system for assessing road traffic noise into an International standard. When this is completed, we anticipate that the United Kingdom system will be universally acknowledged and will provide a uniform measure for this environmental nuisance.