Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con):...I have a particular
pet project for the Department for Transport, which the Transport
Secretary well knows. People who passed their driving test before
1997 can drive a D1, which is basically a minibus not for hire,
and a C1, which is a typical Tesco or
Ocado delivery van; they are also used by many
other firms, like Amazon, DPD and so on. A European regulation
then required people to undertake the expensive tests needed for
HGVs. I think that is unnecessary. At the time, I guess it must
have been a Labour Government, or perhaps it was still a
Conservative one; I cannot quite remember—[Interruption.] I
apologise: it must have been a Conservative Government who
thankfully negotiated to keep grandfather rights. I say that we
should get on and repeal this unnecessary law, as that would
allow many more people into the market to drive these sort of
vans. This is a particular issue for rural communities, which do
not have extensive public transport, because so much community
transport relies on volunteers to drive minibuses so that people
can get to a variety of activities, and those areas are currently
having to pay quite a lot of money to train people to do that.
This is a really easy win. I keep being told that primary
legislation would be required, but let us do that, if that is
what is needed to boost that aspect of productivity...
