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Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) (Downloading and Retention of Data) Regulations 2008

I welcome the regulations, which will obviously help to improve safety on our roads. I do not oppose them in any way, but I have one or two questions for the Minister, so that we know exactly where we are going. In another place, there was discussion of how the regulations might affect rural bus services. Where there is a distance of, I think, over 50 kilometres—that will obviously be the case in some rural areas—the bus driver might be required to conform to the regulations. I gather that discussions are ongoing and are not yet finalised. Perhaps the Minister could tell me where we are on bus drivers and the regulations. I gather that recent figures on the checking of offences have shown that one in 27 offences is caused by drivers from the European Union whereas for UK drivers the figure is only one in 99. Are the Government doing anything about the fact that there is considerably more offending by European drivers? I would also like confirmation—I think that it was confirmed in the other place—that the regulations apply only to vehicles that were registered after early 2006, so that older vehicles, such as horse boxes, do not have to be regulated in this way at the moment. This year, the requirement by VOSA to check drivers has risen from 1 per cent of days worked to 2 per cent. Perhaps the Minister could explain that to me. We very much support the regulations, but I should like these questions to be answered for the sake of clarity.