Author: admin

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that non-English-speaking road users can read road signs.

Baroness Kramer

Local authorities have a duty to ensure that their traffic signs and road markings comply with the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions (TSRGD) or are otherwise specially authorised by the Secretary of State. To provide consistency for road safety and efficient traffic management, TSRGD specifies that signs used on roads in Great Britain are in English. The Welsh Language Act 1993, however, allows for both Welsh and English to be used on traffic signs placed in Wales and the responsibility for specifying such bilingual signs is a devolved matter.

The UK traffic signing system uses largely symbolic signing for warning and regulatory signs without the use of worded plates to explain the symbols. This means that many signs are fully understandable by drivers even if those drivers do not speak English.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance is given to overseas truck drivers regarding United Kingdom road traffic regulations.

Baroness Kramer

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency produces extensive guidance to help heavy goods vehicle drivers and operators meet their obligations, including the Highway Code and guidance on drivers’ hours and load security, for example. This is published on GOV.UK.

It is however, the responsibility of the individual driver and employer to ensure that they are aware of the specific road traffic requirements in each Member State. The driving test is delivered in accordance with EU requirements and all truck drivers have to undertake an EU prescribed initial qualification to gain a driver CPC and undertake mandatory periodic training to maintain it. One of the requirements of the CPC is that the driver is aware of the regulations relating to the carriage of goods, many of which are uniform across the EU such as drivers’ hours, use of tachographs, seatbelts, operator licensing and relevant papers relating to types of goods carried. Information for specific road traffic signs can be found on GOV.UK

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many breaches of the law by foreign-registered heavy goods vehicles in 2013–14 resulted in either a fixed penalty notice or a court summons; and how many of those were successfully enforced.

Lord Bates

The data requested in not available as it is not centrally collected.

The Home Office collect data on the number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued by police forces in England and Wales for various motoring offences, as well as the number of these FPNs that are paid and the number in which the fine is registered in court. This data cannot be broken down by type of vehicle or owner of vehicle.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many lorries registered overseas have been found to be (1) overloaded, (2) in an unsatisfactory mechanical condition, and (3) driven in breach of driver hours regulations, within the last 12 months.

Baroness Kramer

The information requested is in the table below:

On any given check it is often the case that the same vehicle is checked by a Vehicle Examiner and a Traffic Examiner and will be counted against both disciplines. Some vehicles/operators are targeted by only one discipline, for example: an older vehicle might be targeted for its condition but not to check on the driver.