Motor Vehicles (International Circulation) (Amendment) Order 2010

I thank the noble Lord for his intervention, because it allowed me to get the answer to the noble Baroness’s question, at any rate. The new graduated fixed penalty, deposit and immobilisation schemes were introduced in May 2009, and she asked how they were going. The time that has passed since the introduction of the financial penalty and deposit schemes is too short for us yet to be able to draw any conclusions. My right honourable and honourable friends in another place in the Department for Transport have given an undertaking that the effectiveness of the scheme will be reviewed after 12 months. We shall be doing so in April, after we have accumulated a year’s worth of information from the operation of the scheme. On the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, there are measures in the regulation that should help improve standards across the UK. All member states will have to keep standard records of the standard performance of their operators, such as those that are maintained in the UK, and I made the point that all member states will have to establish a national electronic register. The noble Lord referred specifically to the Republic of Ireland, and I shall write to him about that, as I do not have an answer about it. I hope that that answers the questions from the noble Lord and the noble Baroness. Motion agreed.