§ Lord Brabazon of Taraasked Her Majesty's Government:
What proposals they have for dealing with abuse of the requirements on lorry drivers' hours and rest periods, and the use of tachographs.
The Minister of State, Department of Transport (The Earl of Caithness)Breaches of the rules for drivers' hours, rest periods and the proper fitting and use of tachographs have serious implications for road safety. We take a grave view of those who seek to circumvent these rules and, in the interests of safety, the Vehicle Inspectorate is to increase the enforcement resources it devotes to this work by nearly 70 per cent.10WA from June this year. This will be organised through special task forces to target specific areas of concern. We aim to achieve this result within the present resources of the Vehicle Inspectorate both through a number of efficiency gains and by switching some effort from weight enforcement.