§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what arrangements he will make to ensure that single vehicle car imports are compliant with EU safety requirements.[85611]
§ Mr. BattleSingle vehicle imports are subject to the Single Vehicle Approval test administered by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Transport. Its purpose is to ensure that imported cars which are not manufactured in the European Union are safe on UK roads. To that end, the proposed revisions to the scheme will enhance the test standards to align broadly with EU safety standards.
§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what arrangements he will make to ensure that consumers are kept informed of specification differences between UK-sourced new cars and single vehicle imports. [85612]
§ Mr. BattleThe Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has published a booklet "The Single Vehicle Approval scheme" (SVA2) which describes the existing SVA regulations and test regime. Before the proposed revisions to the scheme are implemented, they will update and expand this information to include the main differences between European and non-European standards. The existence of specification differences between cars made for use in the European Union and sold 197W through the manufacturers' official networks, and those made for other markets and brought into the UK by independent importers, has also been the subject of extensive coverage in the media. In deciding to remove the limits on imports of cars made for other markets progressively by 2001, the Government have been partly guided by the need to give the independent importers time to establish further their service networks in the UK.