§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) if he will estimate the(a) number and (b) percentage of vehicles licensed in the United Kingdom currently equipped with variable speed limiters; and if he will make a statement; [4529]
(2) if he will list the (a) dates, (b) locations, (c) duration and (d) results of trials undertaken by his Department into the use of variable speed limiters in vehicles; and if he will make a statement; [4530]
(3) what assessment his Department has made of the relationship between variable speed limiters and the total number of (a) road accidents and (b) fatalities recorded; and if he will make a statement. [4531]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonSeveral different makes of vehicle speed limiter are available. All are designed to limit a vehicle's maximum speed and are required by law to be fitted to large goods vehicles and coaches. Some makers of speed limiter allow the driver to set a lower limit than the maximum but it is not possible to give an estimate of the number or percentage of vehicles fitted with speed limiters which have this additional feature.
Research has been commissioned by my Department to examine the feasibility of equipping vehicles with speed limiters which may be controlled by devices outside the vehicle, for example, by roadside transponders. It is too early to draw any conclusions from this work. In addition, we are monitoring trails taking place in other countries but at present no specific plans exist to trial externally controlled variable speed limiting equipment on public roads in the UK.
We have made no assessment of the relationship between existing variable speed limiters and numbers of road accidents in the UK.