§ Viscount Simonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What proportion of heavy goods vehicles and public service vehicles fitted with speed governors have been found to have defective governors at annual tests or at roadside checks over the last three years for which figures are available. [HL1355]
§ The Minister of State, Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (Lord Falconer of Thoroton)The Vehicle Inspectorate records the number of vehicles checked at the roadside and at fleet inspections but it does not record whether the vehicle is fitted with a speed limiter. The examination of speed limiters requires the use of sophisticated electronic equipment by trained examiners and the check takes some time to complete. Speed limiter checks are carried out on vehicles where the examination of the tachograph charts leads the examiner to suspect that the speed limiter may be defective. A functional check of the speed limiter is not currently part of the annual test but will form part of the test from October 2002 to comply with the EU directive that requires the component to be checked at annual test from February 2003. The total number of vehicles checked at the roadside and fleet checks and the number of speed limiter defects found are set out in the table below.
Year No. of checks (Note 1) No. of speed limiter defects % of defects 1999–2000 135,715 1,046 0.77 2000–01 127,076 1,663 1.31 2001–02 Half year 54,927 865 1.57 Note 1>: The number of vehicles checked includes HGVs and PSVs checked at the roadside and fleet inspections.