§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the implications of the decisions taken at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development for United Kingdom transport policy.
§ Mr. MillerTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proposals he has for supporting the commitment to achieve a reduction in motor vehicle carbon dioxide emission levels to 1990 levels by the year 2000.
§ Mr. MacGregorTransport must play its part in the national sustainable development plan and in the programme to limit carbon dioxide emissions. The Government are particularly keen to encourage more economical use of fuel by road transport. We have already taken steps to do this. In the Budget speech, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a 10 per cent. increase in road fuel duties. He also announced that in future Budgets he will increase duty on all road fuels by at least 3 per cent. in real terms.
Other measures to improve fuel efficiency include an emissions check into the MOT test which encourages people to keep their engines in tune and the introduction 416W of speed limiters for new heavy lorries since August 1992 and for many of the heaviest existing lorries from August 1993.
We are encouraging the use of public transport by supporting the highest level of investment in rail for 30 years and we are working with the bus industry and local authorities on ways to make bus travel more attractive, for example, through traffic management measures to speed up journey times.