Appendix 1: Draft Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2021
Letter from Baroness Vere of Norbiton, Minister for Roads, Buses and Places at the Department for Transport, to Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, Chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
I am writing to inform you of a statutory instrument laid in the House on 23 November 2021; the draft Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2021. These regulations replicate those first laid on 16 September 2021 as the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2021.
The regulations were not approved in time for the intended coming into force date of 15 November 2021. This rendered those regulations inoperable as such affirmative statutory instruments cannot be amended once laid in draft, they also cannot come into force before being made and cannot be made until approved in each House. It is not possible under the relevant powers of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to make corrective retrospective legislation, which would have been the only other option available to solve the inoperability.
As such, the regulations must be re-laid as a new statutory instrument with the only substantive changes being the title and the coming into force provisions. Accordingly, the explanatory memorandum also replicates the contents of the original explanatory document, save for the corresponding necessary amendments and clarification.
I can reassure you that this is a matter of procedure only and that the context for bringing forward the regulations remain as before. In view of this, I hope that the scrutiny of the draft Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2021 regulations is not onerous and would be grateful for your support in considering them urgently. The effect of these regulations remains as before by removing the need for drivers to take an additional test in order to tow heavy trailers behind their cars. By doing so, it will allow around 30,000 more HGV tests to take place every year, with testing capacity diverted to HGV tests.
24 November 2021
Letter from Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts to Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Thank you for your letter of 24 November requesting the Committee’s urgent consideration of the draft Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Amendment (No. 5) Regulations 2021. You state that these Regulations are almost identical to the No. 2 Regulations laid on 16 September 2021 and on which we reported, at some length, in our 15th Report of this session.
Given the similarity between the two sets of Regulations, we are surprised and disappointed that the Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the No. 5 Regulations does not acknowledge our report on the No. 2 Regulations and so provides no answers to the points we had raised–even though the points were supported in debate by several members of the House, as can be seen from the Hansard of Tuesday 9 November. In advance of our consideration of the No. 5 Regulations, therefore, we would be grateful if you could explain the reasons for this omission.
30 November 2021
Letter from Baroness Vere of Norbiton to Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts
Thank you for your letter of 30 November. Please accept my apologies that the Explanatory Memorandum did not address the points you raised in your report on the No.2 Regulations. We did not intend to be evasive and I hope this letter will sufficiently explain the rationale behind the approach we took.
In my letter of 13 October, I explained that my officials were progressing the Impact Assessment. I was able to share additional analysis that had been taken on the impact on road safety from the proposed measure to remove the car and trailer test.
I am pleased to report the Impact Assessment has now been submitted to the Regulatory Policy Committee for their scrutiny. Their recommendations are expected in January and the Impact Assessment will be published following that, early in the new year. I acknowledge this is not a situation that we would have preferred and fully understand that this is not best practice, however, on balance it has been necessary in order to swiftly take action to address the challenges of the driver shortage.
I believed it would be inappropriate to amend the Explanatory Memorandum in anticipation of the opinion of the Regulatory Policy Committee. Road safety is of course of the utmost importance, which is why we have committed to review this legislation at regular intervals, initially after three years have passed and thereafter at five-year intervals. We are committed to collecting further data to inform this review.
I am grateful to the noble Lords for their participation in the debate on 9 November and would like to reiterate my thanks for their questions. I hope my letter dated 29 November 2021 sufficiently addressed the questions they raised during the debate. I have also provided copy of this letter.
I am grateful to noble Lords for their continued assistance with scrutiny of this legislation.
6 December 2021