Road Safety Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 131:"After Clause 37, insert the following new clause—"    ““CONDITIONS ATTACHED TO LICENCES    In section 21 of the Goods Vehicle (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 (c. 23), after subsection (1) insert— ““(1A)   On issuing an operator’s licence, or on varying such a licence under section 17, a traffic commissioner may attach to the licence such conditions as he thinks fit to ensure that vehicles authorised to be used under it are properly inspected, including— (a)   requiring the use of serial numbered inspection reports supplied by the Secretary of State or his agent; (b)   requiring copies of each inspection to be sent to the Secretary of State or his agent.”””” The noble Earl said: When the traffic commissioner is dealing with a goods vehicle operator who appears to be experiencing difficulties in meeting the required standard of maintenance, he can impose conditions. They frequently involve maintenance arrangements and, in particular, inspections. When the Vehicle Operator Services Agency announces a site inspection, it is often the case that the operator has no inspection records because he is poor at paperwork. It does not necessarily mean that he has not been maintaining his fleet properly, but the Committee will recognise that the maintenance records are extremely important. If he does not have proper records of inspections, the operator’s solution would be to find an experienced mate who knows how to create inspection records that will tie in with the bills for spare parts. It is not too difficult for an expert in vehicle maintenance to do that, and it is hard to detect except, perhaps, by means of an unannounced visit. However, serial-numbered inspection reports would make it much harder, by orders of magnitude, to falsify the inspection record, even if only three vehicles were involved. When trying to falsifying the records, it is far too easy to make errors that would be detectable in an audit, and the operator would not be able to destroy a serial numbered inspection report because there would be gaps in his records. I beg to move.