Motor Vehicles (International Circulation) (Amendment) Order 2010

I shall take up two or three of those issues. The noble Baroness referred to "cabotage", which is the conveyance of goods in the UK by a vehicle not registered in the UK. The order appears to expand the scope of cabotage by foreign-registered lorries in the United Kingdom. Do we gain any reciprocal benefit from any other country where lorries registered in the United Kingdom can undertake cabotage, or is this a case of us, but nobody else, giving up something? On the issue of enforcement, I draw the noble Lord’s attention to the number of questions I have asked about the flagrant abuse of the law by lorries registered in the Republic of Ireland travelling on the A55 in Wales. Several Written Questions to the department have elicited the response, "We are in negotiation with the Government of the Republic of Ireland". However, this has not prevented the same lorries and the same drivers repeatedly carrying out illegal haulage while no action is taken against them in their country of origin. That is particularly serious because Ireland at least uses English—perhaps to its regret—as its main language, so there are no communication difficulties. Can the Minister give us an assurance that other countries will enforce the law as it is observed in this country? We would take away people’s operating licences if they were found to be abusing the measures. Will the Minister give an assurance that the same would apply in, say, the Czech Republic, Greece or Finland? Are the laws being applied fairly and evenly, or is this another case of us tightening up a little further and others doing nothing? Finally, foreign lorries do not pay to use our roads. That is a lacuna in the Government’s tenure as they have allowed that situation to continue for so long and have failed to provide any reasonable remedy.