§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to ban the use of bull bars on public roads. [120281]
§ Mr. HillAs stated in our recently published Road Safety Strategy "Tomorrow's Roads—Safer for Everyone", we believe that the anticipated European Commission proposal to make all new car fronts safer would be the best way of preventing particularly dangerous bull bars being fitted to vehicles. We are currently awaiting the opportunity to examine the details of the Commission's draft proposal. We had expected this to be put forward in mid-March, and were disappointed when this proved not to be possible. We are now urging the Commission to bring forward their proposal at the earliest opportunity.
We are keen to see bull bars tackled as soon as possible, on an effective Europe-wide basis. We are therefore also submitting a scientific proposal to the Commission for bull bars to be controlled by an amendment to the external projections directive as an interim measure.