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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw. Personally, I would not be seen dead in one of these vehicles, but I am worried about their construction. Some of them may have been modified, so they will not have been built in that way by the original vehicle manufacturer, and inadequate attention may have been paid to their strength. They are rather like a very long bridge; they are terribly long, and I doubt whether the chassis is strong enough to support the load, especially if there are a lot of people inside, getting up to all sorts of mischief, as the noble Lord, Lord Hogg, pointed out. What approval requirements are applicable to such vehicles? Is it the single vehicle approval scheme or are we merely relying upon a North American-type approval? Is the approval related to the vehicle’s original design or its design when it is stretched?