Impounding may need private bill
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by Miles Brignall • The Government is considering using a Private Members' Bill to introduce legislation to allow the Vehicle Inspectorate to impound unlicensed trucks.
Faced with a desperate shortage of Parliamentary time to introduce legislation, the Department of Transport is understood to be looking at other methods of putting impounding on the statute-book.
One option would be the use of a Private Member's Bill. During each Parliament 20 members' names are pulled out of a hat: they are then allowed to put any bill before the House.
In the past, Governments have been able to persuade one of the 20 to take up its cause (they are called handout bills) where there is cross-party support for its introduction. CM understands this would be so in the case of impounding, although it is yet to be tested among MPs.
What is clear is that there would have to changes to the Operator's Licensing system to estabupdated database of all legitimate vehicles. Only if the VI was able to establish beyond doubt at the roadside that a truck was not covered by a licence would it impound it. Dunwoody:Supports Operators would impounding move.
have to phone in the registration number of a truck it wished to use—gone would be the margin system currently used.
Last year Worcester MP Mike Foster hit the headlines with his Private Members' Bill on foxhunting. This bill failed after encountering opposition from landowners and was "talked out" of time. It is not thought impounding would encounter the same opposition.
Transport Select Committee chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody welcomes the move saying legislation on impounding is long overdue.
"There is no doubt the Government is short of time. The use of a Private Members' Bill would certainly get around the problem," she says.
Although the bill would be drafted by the DOT, an MP would have to be persuaded of impounding's importance—he or she would face large numbers of other groups pushing a range of different legislation.
The industry is still waiting for the Government to publish the findings of the consultation exercise that had been expected at the end of the summer.