Road users released from red tape

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 09:30

During December 2011, the UK government went full throttle and slashed motoring red tape, scrapping or improving 142 pieces of legislation.

The Road Transport Red Tape Challenge is part of a government wide process to do away with ‘unnecessary, burdensome and overcomplicated regulation’. The Road Transport challenge was launched in May and after a vigorous review process, taking on board suggestions from the public, 84 pieces of legislation are being improved and another 58 regulations are being scrapped as part of the process.

Some of the key changes will reduce the hassle of paper work and steer us towards an online approach including:

• Scrapping the requirement to hold a paper counterpart to your driving licence - so no more frantic hunting through drawers and files for that elusive bit of paper.

• If your car is off the road, once you have notified the DVLA of SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification), you will no longer have the burden of annual SORN renewal.

• For fleet operators, hard-copies of V5C vehicle registration certificates (‘logbook’) will only be issued when needed and this will potentially be extended to private motorists.

• If you are in the Territorial Army (TA), a limited exemption to drivers’ hours rules will allow those who also drive for the TA reservists in their own time to continue to do so.

There are also proposals to improve how we deal with insurance certificates. The Department for Transport (DfT) is considering removing the need for the insurance certificate and is working with the insurance industry to do so. In addition, are plans to abolish the need for motorists to prove they have insurance when applying for tax, making it possible for 600,000 more people to apply for car tax online. New checks for insurance under Continuous Insurance Enforcement rules mean DVLA records are regularly compared with the Motor Insurance Database (MID), to catch motorists that appear to have no insurance.

Still up for consultation is the much discussed increase of the motorway speed limit, from 70mph to 80mph. In addition, the DfT is examining whether the 80mph limit could also apply to some other dual carriageways. More lengthy debates to follow on this no doubt.

Elsewhere, for classic car enthusiasts, the DfT is currently consulting on whether to exempt historic vehicles (manufactured prior to 1 January 1960) from having to undergo an annual MOT test. The consultation document is available at http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2011-27 and closes on 26 January 2012. Some other parts of the MOT test Regulations will also be updated as part of the implementation of new EU rules on roadworthiness testing.

The full details of the Red Tape Challenge can be found at http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/home/index/. What are your thoughts on the changes to the regulations? By Anna Livesey

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