Instruments drawn to the special attention of the House:
Department for Transport’s interventions to increase HGV capacity
1.We have received a number of instruments from the Department for Transport (DfT) in recent weeks which all aim to increase Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) capacity in various ways. Two more instruments are described below: another extension of lorry drivers’ hours and an amendment to cabotage rules to allow foreign firms to operate in Great Britain for up to 14 days.
2.One of our problems in trying to scrutinise these instruments has been that we have only been seeing pieces of the programme, and so we have been unclear about the Department’s overarching strategy. To address this, DfT has provided a list of the 28 short, medium and long-term interventions it is making to resolve the lorry driver shortage. (This is published in Appendix 1 of this Report.)
3.We are grateful to the Department, and the list does provide new detail about expenditure on individual interventions and take-up, which will be of interest to the House. However, while this list shows the various strands of the Department’s current activity, we still lack a strategic statement of the programme’s objectives, milestones and costs, against which its effectiveness and value for money can be assessed.
Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) (Temporary Use in Great Britain) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/1187)
Date laid: 27 October 2021
Parliamentary procedure: negative
As a further measure to increase the number of HGV movements, this instrument relaxes existing restrictions on cabotage for six months. The House may wish to note that nearly three quarters of those consulted were against the proposal. The Explanatory Memorandum provides no information on how many additional HGV journeys might be added by this instrument, or what the take-up by foreign operators may be. We therefore have no means to assess whether the number of operators involved will constitute a threat to the UK workforce, or to measure whether the legislation is likely to be effective.
4.These Regulations are drawn to the special attention of the House on the ground that they are politically or legally important and give rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House.
5.As a further measure to deal with the current risks to supply chains related to acute lorry driver shortages and to the COVID-19 pandemic, this instrument aims to increase HGV driver capacity by lifting some of the restrictions on cabotage by foreign firms.
6.Cabotage is the transport of goods (or passengers) between two places in the same country by a transport operator from another country for the purposes of hire and reward. It is heavily restricted both in the UK and abroad.
7.Currently, in accordance with the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the UK allows goods vehicle operators established in the EU the right to undertake up to two laden transports within seven days of a laden entry into the UK. Unladen movements are also permitted. These rights are unaffected by the additional relaxation allowed by these Regulations.
8.These Regulations exempt non-UK goods vehicle operators from the requirement to hold an operator licence when their vehicles operate within Great Britain. The Regulations set a limit for such cabotage of 14 days from the date of the laden vehicle arriving in the UK. It is a temporary measure that is due to expire on 30 April 2022. In practice very few non-EU/European Economic Area operators reach the UK.
9.The Government had planned to extinguish other, lesser access rights for EU operators with effect from 1 January 2022.1 These allowed one cabotage movement within three days of an unladen entry and access associated with combined transport.2 Those changes will now be deferred until the extension to cabotage permitted by this instrument is withdrawn.
Consultation
10.A week-long consultation was held between 14 and 21 October 2021. It attracted 150 responses, of which 38 were for and 108 (72%) were against the proposal (including the Road Hauliers Association and Unite the Union). According to the Explanatory Memorandum (EM), issues of concern included the relaxation’s effect on the pay and conditions of the UK workforce, effects on haulage rates, pressure on lorry parking facilities and inconsistency with developing the UK workforce. The full analysis of consultation responses, however, is not yet available. We also note the difficulties the restrictions on cabotage are causing to orchestras and other touring musicians.
Impact
11.Because this measure is planned to last for only six months, no formal impact assessment has been prepared, and the EM provides no information on how many additional HGV journeys might be added by this instrument or what the take-up by foreign operators may be. We therefore have no means to assess whether the number of operators involved will constitute a threat to the UK workforce, or to measure whether the legislation is likely to be effective.
Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs (Temporary Exceptions) (No. 4) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/1207)
Date laid: 29 October 2021
Parliamentary procedure: negative
These Regulations further extend the relaxation of limits to HGV drivers’ hours until 10 January 2022–at which point this “temporary exception” will have been in place continuously for six months. We repeat our concerns that cumulative tiredness may constitute a road safety hazard. We also note industry concerns about other consequences of this policy for the sector which were raised during consultation.
12.These Regulations are drawn to the special attention of the House on the ground that they are politically or legally important and give rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House.
13.These Regulations further extend the relaxation of limits to HGV drivers’ hours until 10 January 2022–at which point this “temporary exception” will have been in place continuously for six months. The instrument:
- extends the normal daily limit of nine hours driving a day to 10 hours, up to four times a week, with an overarching limit of 56 hours driving in a week and 90 hours in a fortnight; or, as an alternative,
- introduces an amended weekly rest pattern that allows an additional day of driving in a fortnight (providing an equivalent period of rest is taken before the end of the third week). This exception increases the maximum permitted driving time in a fortnight to 99 hours from the standard 90 hours.
14.We have drawn attention to all the previous instruments that have incrementally extended this provision since 12 July 2021 on the grounds that cumulative tiredness in HGV drivers may constitute a road safety risk.3 The responses to the consultation exercise quoted in the Explanatory Memorandum (EM) also take that view and add that these Regulations make HGV drivers’ working conditions worse, which is having a negative effect on recruitment.
15.Our concern is bolstered by figures (included in our previous reports) that indicate that a significant proportion (27%) of the drivers stopped in roadside checks are breaching the Drivers’ Hours legislation. We have repeatedly asked the Department for Transport to provide evidence that would allay our concerns, but the responses have indicated that the Department does not have information either way.
16.The EM to the current instrument does make a more concerted effort to address the concerns we have expressed, but the simple statement that “The Department has not been made aware of any increase in accidents involving HGVs since the temporary exceptions to the drivers’ hours rules were first introduced in July 2021” is not sufficient to allay them.
1 DfT, Notification of changes of access to the UK for EU Road Transport Operators (24 September 2021): https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/uk_27_september_2021_1.pdf [accessed 10 November 2021].
2 Combined transport involves the movement of goods in the same loading unit or vehicle, using two or more modes of transport, without handling the goods themselves when the mode of transport is changed.
3 See for example Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs (Temporary Exceptions) (No. 3) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/1106), 15th Report (Session 2021–22, HL Paper 79) and Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs (Temporary Exceptions) (No. 2) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/921), 12th Report (Session 2021–22, HL Paper 63).