MP, Chair of the
Environmental Audit Committee, has today written to MP, Minister of State at
the Department for Transport, to express the Committee’s
concerns around the lack of progress of applying fixes to cars
equipped with ‘defeat devices’.
Figures from the Department for Transport obtained by the Chair
show the number of fixes to Volkswagen manufactured cars has
fallen to 2% of the affected cars each month. The analysis also
shows that rates of fixes to Skoda vehicles rose rapidly in
July and August to roughly double that of other brands owned by
Volkswagen – an anomaly questioned by the Chair in her
letter.
MP, said:
“It is over two years since the VW emissions scandal was
discovered, a third of vehicles have yet to be fixed and rates
have slowed considerably. We have written to the Department for
Transport to ask what action they are taking in response to the
stalled progress.
“It is essential that the vehicles on Britain’s roads adhere to
emissions regulations, particularly as the country is faced
with dangerous levels of pollution. The Department must take
responsibility for ensuring that these fixes are completed as
soon as possible”.
Notes to editors:
In his letter of January 2017, Transport Minister said DfT had regular
update meetings with VW to ensure that good progress is being
made in fixing the 1,207,152 vehicles affected by the emissions
scandal.[1]
Figures provided in response to Parliamentary Questions tabled
by MP show that as of September
2017 around two thirds of affected vehicles had been fixed, but
that the rate of fixes had declined from a high of 10% of
affected cars per month in February 2017 to 2% of affected cars
per month.
