§ Ms. MowlamTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if, as part of his quality service objectives, he will require the publication of the findings of each new car model test commissioned since 1988 using public money.
§ Mr. Kenneth CarlisleAll mass-produced new cars have to be type-approval tested against a range of standards before they can be registered. Although testing is supervised by the Vehicle Certification Agency, it is paid for by manufacturers, which are at liberty to make test results available voluntarily if they wish. Our principal concern is to confirm that type-approved vehicles meet key safety standards, rather than to record the extent by which they exceed those standards.
We are nevertheless currently considering whether basic data about exhaust and noise emissions could be made available in future. Precise figures are recorded for these aspects of type-approval testing, and it may be possible to publish information like the official list on car fuel consumption, which has been published twice a year since 1983. Such a list may have to be compiled on an EC-wide basis as much type-approval testing of United Kingdom registered cars is undertaken elsewhere in the Community.